Ratchanok’s best chance to start anew
There is no big difference between an athlete and a stock market as both can rebound with or without a clear stimulus any time.
There have been tales in which it only took a fleeting thought, a word of advice from an unexpected source or even a brief interaction with something, often seen as mundane and ignored, to start a historic comeback in sports.
And when the 2016 Thailand Open badminton tournament starts Tuesday, a lot of people will be hoping that the country’s top player Ratchanok Intanon finds her spark to bounce back from her recent setbacks.
There have been some significant developments in the wake of August’s Rio Olympics and these are all tailormade to help Ratchanok resurrect her dwindling career and reputation.
The women’s singles world now wears a different look as Wang Shixian and Wang Yihan, who built and guarded the Great Haul of China in badminton for the past many years, have decided to explore other avenues in life and retired.
Having competed for more than a decade, the 28-year-old Wang Yihan won 19 Superseries titles and five Grand Prix trophies, and was crowned champion at the 2011 BWF World Championships.
Wang Shixian claimed 12 career Superseries titles, including two at the All-England and one from the Superseries Finals in 2010.
Olympic gold medallist and twotime world champion Carolina Marin has only been a shadow of her 2015 form this season and is still without a title on the professional circuit. For some reason, the Spaniard also missed the recent Japan and Korea Opens.
The retirement of the two wily Wangs and persisting injuries to India’s Saina Nehwal and China’s Li Xuerui have left the field all tilled and ready for Ratchanok to find her groove once again.
In fact, the Thai star cannot hope for a better opportunity to come her way in the future.
Ratchanok is understandably bereft of confidence.
She had a strong start to the year by winning the Thailand Masters in February in front of a cheering home crowd in Bangkok.
Ratchanok, who has a reputation for being an immensely-talented-but-injury-prone star, claimed a historic feat of winning three Superseries events on the trot in April to briefly become the No.1 in the world.
As fame brought along money-churning, non-sporting assignments, Ratchanok’s form took a nosedive and she was dethroned as the Asian champion and then disappointed at the Uber Cup in a matter of a few weeks.
It was her testing positive for a banned substance at the Uber Cup in May which continues to haunt the Thai badminton star and will keep doing so for the rest of her life — unless she proves that it was just a speck of dirt in her vast, successful career by charging back to the top of world standings in the near future.
She was absolved of any wrongdoing by the World Badminton Federation because the route of administration of the substance was intra‐tendinous which isn’t specifically prohibited by the Wada.
While results at the preceding Indonesian and Australian Opens left much to be desired of, her troubled Rio Games preparations ensured that she exited in the second round, dashing the Thai dream of their first badminton medal in the Olympics.
Last week, she was ousted in the quarter-finals of the Japan Open and fared even worse in the Korea Open, packing her bags after only two rounds.
This week’s Thailand Open, with its paltry prize money purse of US$120,000, is devoid of big names and presents Ratchanok with another great opportunity to find that muchneeded spark. She needs to kickstart another recovery the way she did with her victory at the Thailand Masters — soon.
It shouldn’t be an uphill task for Ratchanok as the top four seeds in the women’s singles competitions are all Thais. Ratchanok leads the cast, followed by world No.15 Porntip Buranarasertsuk, No.18 Busanan Ongbumrungphan and No.20 Nichaon Jindapon.
Meanwhile, He Bingjiao, 19, took her first Superseries title by winning the Japan Open and Sun Yu finished runner-up to make it a one-two finish for China.
The likes of young and talented He and Sun are trying to erect another formidable Great Wall for China and it is the duty of a battle-hardened warrior like Ratchanok to stop that from happening.
If this new breed of Chinese campaigners got the chance to dominate women’s badminton once again, then both Ratchanok and Thai badminton should better prepare themselves for another long spell in oblivion.