Watching the world move

I can feel my skills slowly fade away as I nurse the injury to my thigh...

On the bright side, I've been able to catch up on some of the matches that I've not had the time to watch. I'm really looking forward to the rising stars of badminton, especially in the Women's Singles discipline.

Photo: Yonex.com

There's the super talented Ratchanok Intanon, who's already three-time (and I'm guess a fourth) World Junior Champion. She's got a nice relaxed playing style, throwing a lot of deception into her strokes especially the feign lift to net drop that she tends to do a lot of.

Check out her grip on the racket, it's amazing. But when it comes to crunch time, her shots tend to go a little wayward and the grip will tighten. With more experience she'll be used to her opponents requiring a lot more shots to take down.

Young Intanon seems to have found a nemesis with World Number One Wang Yihan. The couple have met with Intanon's defeat several times already. But I have high hopes for this young champion. She will best the Chinese yet.

I recently had the chance to watch the 2012 Li-Ning China Masters, and there was this very raw Indian lady by the name of Pusarla Venkata Sindhu. She beat current Olympic Champion Li Xuerui in the quarterfinals.

Photo: India Times

Sindhu and Intanon have very different playing styles. Sindhu's the hard worker who can be a very good retriever with time. The long lanky lass gave Li a good run for her money, returning winners and forcing the Olympic Champion to make several unforced errors.

Being tall, she's also able to get very good angles on the cross courts, and she's got a habit of performing the drop shots from her left using the overhead. I guess it's an acceptable shot since she's able to scamper with no worries to the far side if her opponent should ever return it.

This young lady's also got an incredible smash, if she's ever given a chance to use it. She's still distant from Intanon's level, but it's promising to see these two give the Chinese a run for their money.

Man I miss being on the court...