Former badminton champion's son to play in Tata open

To be a champion is not easy. Further more, to be the child of a former champion is all the more difficult. This is the story of Tommy Sugiarto, son of 1983 world badminton champion Icuk Sugiarto from Indonesia and Misbun Ramdan, the son of 1986 All England championship runner-up Misbun Sidek.

Both Tommy and Ramdan have followed the footsteps of their father and started playing badminton from a very young age. Just being good in the game isn’t enough for them. They have their fathers’ reputation at stake and also the urge to build an identity of their own.

Nineteen-year-old Ramdan took to badminton at the age of six. He started training under his uncle Rahman Sidek. His father used to supervise his game but, being the head coach of Malaysian team, he could never devote much time to his son.

“It’s only for the past two years that I am undergoing full time training under my dad. Also, my father being the coach of world No 1 Lee Chong Wei has helped me as on a couple of occasions, I got to practice with Lee. Those sessions helped me a lot to improve my game,” says Ramdan.

He says that he is always under a lot of pressure. “Wherever I go, people recognise me as Misbun’s son and automatically their expectations rise. This sometimes affects my game and due to the mental pressure, I end up losing. I am very impatient at times and try to rush things on court. I need to learn to be more patient to succeed. I am still very young and have a long way to go. I want to build an identity of my own,” he says.

On the other hand, Tommy seems to be unperturbed by the fuss surrounding the son of a world champion. The 22-year-old is currently ranked 50th in the world. “There is not much pressure being a world champion’s son. Some may feel the pressure, but I feel proud to be his son.

“It’s the people who raise their expectations. But that doesn’t affect my game. I do want to be like my dad but then people should not draw comparison between us as my dad is different and I am different,” says Tommy.

Sridhar lone Indian in SF
Anup Sridhar defeated compatriot Sourabh Verma 21-18 21-9 to be the only Indian to reach the semifinals in the men’s singles. He will meet top seed Yunus Alamsyah of Indonesia in the semis, who survived an early scare from Singapore’s Wong Zi Liang Derek to win 20-22 21-12 21-15 in the quarterfinals.

Results:
Quarterfinals: Men’s singles: 6-Stanislav Pukhov (Rus) bt Arif Ramadhan (Ina) 21-17 16-21 21-14; 8-Anup Sridhar (Ind) bt Sourabh Verma (Ind) 21-18 21-9; 1-Yunus Alamsyah (Ina) bt 7-Wong Zi Liang Derek (Sin) 20-22 21-12 21-15; 5-Tommy Sugiarto (Ina) bt Arvind Bhat (Ind) 19-21 21-14 21-13
Women’s singles: 1-Fransiska Ratnasari (Ina) bt Sanyogita Ghorpade (Ind) 21-19 21-10; 4-Trupti Murgunde (Ind) bt Tanvi Lad (Ind) 21-17 21-12; PC Thulasi (Ind) bt Febby Angguni (Ina) 21-19 21-8; Sayali Gokhale (Ind) bt 3-Ana Rovita (Ina) 21-18 21-15
Semifinal line-up: Men’s singles: 5-Tommy Sugiarto (Ina) vs 6-Stanislav Pukhov (Rus); 1-Yunus Alamsyah (Ina) vs 8-Anup Sridhar (Ind);
Women’s singles: Sayali Gokhale (Ind) vs PC Thulasi (Ind); 1-Fransiska Ratnasari (Ina) vs 4-Trupti Murgunde (Ind)