Tokyo Olympics 2020: Inconsistency cost Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth more than cancellation of qualifying events

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Friday issued a statement making it clear that there would be no further change in the qualification system for the Tokyo Olympics and no other qualifying event will be held before the June 15 deadline. This effectively meant that London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal would not get a final hurray in the quadrennial event and former World No 1 Kidambi Srikanth has to now wait for at least another three years for another crack at a medal.

Both Srikanth and Saina needed to finish in the top-16 of the BWF Race to Tokyo Rankings to qualify as the second player from India to make the grade in their respective categories. However, Srikanth finished on 20th spot and Saina on 22nd.

Invitations for #Tokyo2020 will be sent shortly with final participation lists and seedings to be published in the coming weeks.https://t.co/iTUXeCyzxl

— BWF (@bwfmedia) May 28, 2021

As things stand now, only world champion PV Sindhu, world championship bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth and men’s doubles combination of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. Women’s doubles combination of N Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa can find a berth on the flight to the Japanese capital if any of the already qualified pairs opt out.

The last few months of the Olympic qualification period is generally a mad scramble for the last few slots but the COVID-19 pandemic, that stuck in February-March 2020 only made things more complicated. The Olympic qualification events were stopped in March last year after the All England Open and the BWF, in February this year, earmarked only those tournaments which were cancelled/postponed during the original qualification period to be considered for Race to Tokyo rankings.

This effectively meant that Saina and Srikanth had around seven events to stake their claims for the Olympic berth. But as things panned out, the players managed to play just two of those events with four in Asia and one in Europe subsequently got cancelled. Both the players needed to play at least one semi-final and two quarter-finals in the four event events in Asia and would have felt undone by the cancellations.

Srikanth could have even booked a Tokyo berth had the Singapore Open Super 500, the last event on the calendar was held, and the Indian could have possibly gone on to win the tournament.

But would it be right to just blame the cancellation of tournaments for Saina and Srikanth missing out on Tokyo participation? And the answer would be an emphatic NO.

Unlike a few sports in which Olympic qualification is based on performances in select events, the qualification process for badminton takes into consideration performance over a period of one year during which players can participate in any number of tournaments with their best 10 performances considered to arrive at the final ranking. This provides an opportunity for players to overcome dip in form, injury breaks and any other unforeseen challenges during the qualification period.

Despite the Asian leg of qualifying tournaments, starting from April 2021, getting cancelled, both Saina and Srikanth had managed to play 17 qualifying events since May 2019, when the Race to Tokyo kicked off.

Here is a look at their performances in those tournaments

Srikanth Race to Tokyo events performance

Name of tournament	Month/Year	Performance	Opponent he lost to
Indonesia Open Super 1000	July 2019	second round	Ng Ka Long Angus (HKG)
Japan Open Super 750	July 2019	first round	HS Prannoy (IND)
Thailand Open Super 500	August 2019	second round	Khosit Phetpradab (THA)
World Championship	August 2019	third round	Kantaphon Wangcharoen (THA)
Denmark Open Super 750	October 2019	first round	Anders Antonsen (DEN)
French Open Super 750	October 2019	first round	Chou Tien Chen (TPE)
Hong Kong Open Super 500	November 2019	Semi-final	Lee Cheuk Yiu (HKG)
Korea Masters Super 300	November 2019	Second round	Kanta Tsuneyama (THA)
Syed Modi Super 300	Nov/Dec 2019	Quarter-final	Son Wan Ho (KOR)
Malaysia Masters Super 500	January 2020	First round	Chou Tien Chen (TPE)
Indonesia Masters Super 500	January 2020	First round	Shesar Hiren Rhustavito (INA)
Thailand Masters Super 300	January 2020	First round	Shesar Hiren Rhustavito (INA)
Badminton Asia Team Championship*	February 2020	Team Event
Spain Masters Super 300	February 2020	Second round	Ajay Jayaram (IND)
All England Super 1000	March 2020	First round	Chen Long (CHN)
Swiss Open Super 300	March 2021	Semi-Final	Viktor Axelsen (DEN)
Orleans Masters Super 100	March 2021	Quarter-final	Toma Junior Popov (FRA)

 

Saina’s Race to Tokyo events performance

Name of tournament	Month/Year	Performance	Opponent she lost to
New Zealand Open Super 300	May 2019	First round	Wang Zhi Yi (CHN)
Sudirman Cup*	May 2019	Team Event
Thailand Open Super 500	August 2019	Second round	Sayaka Takahashi (JPN)
World Championship	August 2019	Third round	Mia Blichfeldt (DEN)
China Open Super 1000	September 2019	First round	Busanan Ongbamrungphan (THA)
Korea Open Super 500	September 2019	First round	Kim Gae Un (KOR)
Denmark Open Super 750	October 2019	First round	Sayaka Takahashi (JPN)
French Open Super 750	October 2019	Quarter-finals	An Se Young (KOR)
China Open Super 750	November 2019	First round	Cai Yan Yan (CHN)
Hong Kong Open Super 500	November 2019	First round	Cai Yan Yan (CHN)
Malaysia Masters Super 500	January 2020	Quarter-finals	Carolina Marin (ESP)
Indonesia Masters Super 500	January 2020	First round	Sayaka Takahashi (JPN)
Thailand Masters Super 300	January 2020	First round	Line Kjaersfeldt (DEN)
Spain Masters Super 300	February 2020	Quarter-finals	Busanan Ongbamrungphan (THA)
All England Super 1000	March 2020	First round	Akane Yamaguchi (JPN)
Swiss Open Super 300	March 2021	First round	Phittayaporn Chaiwan (THA)
Orleans Masters Super 100	March 2021	Semi-final	Line Kjaersfeldt (DEN)

Merely playing the team championship guarantees 10% of the player’s total ranking points at that stage.

A glance at the performance of both the players make it amply clear that they were far from consistent even for a stretch of 3-4 tournaments and it is this inconsistency that has cost them.

Srikanth was in decent form in the run-up to the qualifying period in 2019, reaching the final of the India Open in March 2019 and reached the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Super 750 and Singapore Super 500 events a month later.

But it looked like the pressure of the Olympic qualification race suddenly caught up with him as he struggled in the South Asian leg and then had to pull out of China Open due to a knee injury.

Srikanth is someone who takes more time to get back to his peak emotionally and mentally following an injury even if he had physically recovered. A tough opening round in Denmark and France also did not help his cause but he did get a breather when Kento Momota withdrew from the opening round of the Hong Kong Open and Chen Long conceded their quarter-final after just one game.

However, Srikanth could not make it to the final and ended the year with a quarter-final finish in the Syed Modi International.

He then opted out of the Premier Badminton League to focus on the Olympic qualification race. The decision hardly bore any fruits as he lost in the first round of four of the five tournaments till the tour was suspended. His only victory outside the Group stage of the Badminton Asia Team Championship came against compatriot Subhakar Dey at the Spanish Masters, a tournament he reached early to acclimatise after leaving the team BATC mid-way as a special case.

To be fair to Srikanth, he looked in a much better touch after the tour resumed with the Denmark Open in October 2020 and also during the three tournaments in Thailand. He was struggling to close down matches but the spring in his steps was visible.

However, by the time the Olympic qualification events restarted, he had his task cut out since he was almost 8000 points behind the 16th ranked player Rasmus Gemke of Denmark. Even reaching the semi-finals in the Swiss Open and quarters of Orleans Masters were never going to be enough in the given situation and he would have banked on a special show in the Asian leg to get a toe in. Those tournaments ultimately got cancelled, leaving him helpless, but the race was probably lost in the first three months of 2020 itself.

In Saina’s case, the former World No 1 never really looked like her old self throughout the last three years with niggling injuries and stomach issues never really allowing her to enter tournaments in peak physical condition.

At times she looked out of breath during rallies and even gave up when the pace of the rallies got to her. The desperation of making every available tournament count did not really allow her to take a break from the events to work on her fitness and she was also playing catch up.

If one felt that the long break from March 2020 could help regain her fitness levels, the covid infection in November last year did not help her cause. Though she reached the semi-finals of the Orlean Masters thanks to a depleted field, she was definitely a pale shadow of herself with her last four appearance in the French city being the only time she has managed to reach the weekend rounds since the Indonesia Masters title triumph in January 2019.

Carolina Marin suffered an ACL tear in that summit clash and since then came back to win a couple of tournaments and is currently fourth in the Race to Tokyo rankings.

Saina hasn’t really spelled out her future plans and is probably just coming to terms with the fact that she won’t be able to play in her fourth consecutive Olympics. With no tournaments on the horizon in the near future, her fans would probably have to just wait and watch.

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