Manraj Singh – The Hindu

For someone only two years on the senior circuit and in his first year on the BWF World Tour, Manraj Singh has been grabbing eyeballs here.

With two big wins under his belt including against H.S. Prannoy in the second round of the Syed Modi India international on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals, the 20-year old has been one of the most impressive youngsters so far. The range of strokes and aggressive play he brings on court, however, is replaced by a tongue-tied kid still relishing the experience off it.

“Mujhe to unke sath khel ke hi khushi mil gayi thi, wo bahut bade player hain aur mere se bahut zyada experienced, jeet ke to aur bhi achha lag raha hai (I was happy simply playing against him, he is a very big player and a lot more experienced than me, winning against him feels even better),” was all he could say after his win against Prannoy, the biggest of his fledgling career.

A Faridabad resident who started playing after accompanying his father and elder brother to the badminton courts, Manraj has been training with Sagar Chopra at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy for the past two years.

Great opportunity

“It has been a great learning opportunity and you get a lot of good sparring partners. Before that, I trained with Anshul Mehta and Ashok Mehta locally. At the junior level, I was advised by my coach to focus only on that and develop my game and not mix things with the senior circuit, unlike many others. I have been playing at the senior level only after turning 18 which is why there are so few tournaments against my name. This is only my third Super 300 event, all this year only,” he explained.

Against Prannoy, Manraj was incessant with his attack, relying on his height and kept pushing the senior pro hard without giving him a chance to take control. It was the same against S. Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian in the opening round, a former World Junior No.1 a year older but with a lot more experience.

“I went with the same attacking mindset today also to give my best without thinking about the result. I know that Prannoy also has a strong attacking game so I tried to keep it with me as much as possible and played a lot more on the net to get points. It felt good,” he added.

A B.Com student at Chandigarh University, Manraj’s immediate target is playing more Super 300 and 500 tournaments. “My world ranking is 73, so I can get entries easily in 300 and 500 events for more international exposure and ranking points before aiming higher. I am also focused on the World Tour only at the moment but if I get a chance, I would love to be at the Asian Games also,” he said.

The lack of words doesn’t reflect his clarity of thoughts. “My idol has always been Lee Chong Wei, I really like his game style and would love to one day play like him. The ultimate target, though, is to become World No. 1 some day,” he declared.