Guru Sai Dutt – another Gopichand in the making!
On Saturday, 18 year old Guru Sai Dutt went down fighting 16-21, 21-17, 17-21 to third-seed Zhengming Wang of China in the Yonex Sunrise BWF world junior badminton championship semi final. Wang went on to win the championship. Guru can have the satisfaction that he lost to the ultimate champion. Guru, one of the four top junior players of the world, is sure to go places and reach pinnacles of glory. Guru's father was with me watching the prize distribution ceremony and was in tears when he saw Wang receiving the trophy – his son was almost there!
Just a fortnight ago, Guru had won the Gold in the III Youth Commonwealth Games. Winning tournaments has just become a habit with the 18 year old lanky Hyderabad lad. In 2008, he had won the Dutch Open 2008, Haarlem, Netherlands.
It was in 1980 that an Indian, Prakash Padukone for the first time won the All England Open Badminton Championships. 21 years later in 2001, Pullela Gopichand of Hyderabad became the second Indian to achieve this feat. With Guru around, perhaps the wait for the third champion will not be long.
Reports say, “Even in his exit on Saturday in a thrilling 21-16, 17-21, 21-17 match against Chinese Wang Zheng Ming, Guru proved that it was possible to work around China's towering and power-packed arsenal with mental application and quick on-court strategising.”.
After the match, Gopichand said, “Though Sai lost, I feel that he played very well today”.
Guru is a resident student in Gopichand's Academy undergoing strenuous training under the great Champion. Just before the prize distribution ceremony, DDT caught up with Gopichand in Pune and asked him whether Guru was a Gopichand in the making. The humble Champion said Guru will achieve far more than what he could ever do. Gopichand said that Guru is shaping up to be a world class player and he is very hard working and highly professional. His other student Saina has just won the Championship in the women's category.
Let's hope Gopi will take Guru to the dizzy heights of world badminton.
Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.Guru landed in Hyderabad this morning and is seen with his proud father Bharadwaj .
You may wonder why all this in DDT . Guru's father RMV Bharadwaj is a Superintendent of Central Excise and the entire Central Excise family is proud of young Guru and wishes all the very best for a great future ahead.