Carolina Marin looks at the Premier Badminton League as a preparatory phase for the following season. That would explain why the 25-year-old has skipped the year’s ending BWF event in the last few years to nurse her injuries and niggles and then come to India refreshed and raring to go.
The Spaniard touched down in Mumbai for PBL’s fourth season in the wee hours of Wednesday and immediately reported for her media obligations, ready to regale everyone with stories of her travels in India and the challenges on the tour.
Marin was instrumental in helping Hyderabad Hunters win the title last season on home turf and the Spaniard would now be plying her trade for new outfit Pune 7 Aces and insists it is the adulation she gets in India that makes her return to play in the league every year.
“I was very impressed about how people love myself, and how people support myself when I play here (sic). I mean, I’m a Spanish girl, but they don’t care about that. They just want to support myself. I love it, appreciate it, and it’s amazing (sic),” said Marin, who refused to touch the PBL trophy when asked to pose with it saying she is a bit superstitious about such things.
Marin, by her own admission, loves team events and has turned up for Spain in Uber Cup and Sudirman Cup almost every time despite the team not being anywhere near medal contention.
In the PBL, the 25-year-old has been a fantastic motivator for the youngsters in the team and the likes of Satwiksairaj and others who played with her in Hyderabad Hunters for the last two seasons still speak of the role she played in binding the team together and getting the best out of them.
Personally for Marin, PBL offers an opportunity to get valuable match practice against some of the best women’s singles players in the world, a luxury she doesn’t have while training back home. “I am looking forward to get few good matches against Sindhu, Saina (Nehwal) and others ahead of the new season,” said the reigning Olympic and world champion who is returning to action after nursing a leg injury.
She, however, doesn’t want to pick which rivalry she cherishes the most despite having some of the best encounters against both the Indian superstars.
“Both are great, really difficult to play. They have different styles of game. I have to plan new strategies for them. It’s difficult to pick one, because they are so different. But it’s good, because I have to change my thinking every time,” said the 25-year-old who defeated both the Indians enroute her third World Championship crown in Nanjing earlier this year.
Marin, who had not won any title on the BWF Tour this year before the World Championship, was a notch above all in Nanjing and then went on to win the Japan Open and China Open crowns in September.
The Spaniard had made it clear at the start of the season that given the obligation of playing 12 World Tour events from this year, she would be focused on excelling on just a couple of tournaments and used the first half of the year to regain her peak fitness and complete the mandatory tournaments quota.
Marin insists that she had to take this call as for almost a year and a half. After the Rio Olympic gold, she lacked the motivation to work hard or push herself, and had to redraw her plans.
It is when she decided a new target for herself and that was to become the best player in history.
“I didn’t have any motivation to tell myself to keep practising hard. I have so many scares with myself that now, I just work on that. It was really difficult, not just for myself but also my team, to keep motivating ourselves.
“But (now) I want to be the best player in history, and for that I have to win one more Olympic, and minimum two more World Championships,” she said before admitting that it would be a pretty difficult task given the level of competition in women’s singles.
But how did she decide on this number? “I’m the only one who has three (in women’s singles). Lin Dan has 5. So this is something I want to equal. But let’s see, it’s going to be really difficult but I will try my best,” she added.
One of the names that could stand between Marin and two more world titles and the Olympic gold is world number one Tai Tzu Ying but the Spaniard doesn’t want to single out the Chinese Taipei shuttler as the biggest threat.
“She’s doing really good. But it’s not the main thing that we only think about that. We have to think about what we have to do against every player, not just Tai Tzu Ying. That’s what I said before the World Championships.
“She won all the tournaments before it, but suddenly, at the World Championships, she just lost in the second round. So anything can happen in badminton. That’s the best thing about this sport. Now, with her injury, let’s see how she starts next year. It’s going to be very interesting,” she added.
The next world championship is over eight months away and the Olympics in August 2020. And till then, Marin’s focus is to take care of her injuries and her body. And before that, to get her hands on the PBL trophy with her new teammates.
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