Pune: India’s Rahul Bharadwaj reached the final of the India Junior International Grand Prix on Saturday after beating compatriot Kiran George in a tense three-game match that lasted over an hour. Bharadwaj, 17, won the match 21-16, 20-22, 24-22 after 64 minutes of play.
Bharadwaj and George both train at the Prakash Padukone Academy in Bengaluru, so there was an element of camaraderie in the first game as both players refused to step out of second gear. Bharadwaj won that game rather comfortably 21-16 considering what was to transpire in the rest of the match.
George stepped up a gear in the second game as he looked to make a match out of the encounter. Bharadwaj was beginning to look tired as the game wore on and this wasn’t a surprise considering he had played a three-game match earlier in the day in the quarterfinals, where he beat the second seed Ruttanapak Oupthong of Thailand 15-21, 21-14, 21-12 in 50 minutes.
However, Bharadwaj wasn’t one to give up as he dived around to retrieve points and kept challenging his opponent. But it was George who won that game narrowly 22-20 to force a decider and further extend the court time of Bharadwaj.
The third game was a tight affair again as the two players went neck and neck. In the second half, an exhausted and perhaps frustrated Bharadwaj threw his racket on the floor after losing a point, which earned him a yellow card from the chair umpire. However, he maintained his composure from thereon to eventually win that game 24-22, and seal his spot in the final.
“I was very tired throughout the match,” Bharadwaj told The Field after the semifinal, his second three-game match of the day. “After the first game itself I was quite exhausted but I somehow managed to pull through.”
In Sunday’s final, Bharadwaj will be up against junior world No 2 Kunlavut Vitidsarn, who beat India’s Kartikey Gulshan Kumar 21-16, 19-21, 21-16 in the other semifinal. This will be Bharadwaj’s seventh match of the tournament – more than any other player – considering he came through two rounds of qualifying. That’s seven matches in just four days. He has already been on court for over four hours, or 255 minutes to be exact, since Thursday.
It was thus not surprising that the Karnataka boy collapsed to the floor after his game. “I hope to recover in time for the final,” he said. “I will recover mostly. I have to play a good match. [Vitidsarn] is a good player. I have come with good preparation so I think I can beat him.”
This is only the second international tournament that Bharadwaj, the sixth-ranked Indian junior, is playing this year. In fact, before the Victor International Series in May this year, where he lost in the qualifiers, the last international tournament Bharadwaj took part in was back in 2014.
A knee injury had kept him out of action for almost a year between 2015 and 2016. He is now slowly charting his way back on the international circuit, which is why a title win on Sunday will be even more special.
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