Badminton Asia Championships: Coach Manu Attri guides fiery Dhruv Kapila & Tanisha Crasto to keep Indian flag flying | Badminton News

Coach Manu Attri had his hot-headedness magically cured, when he started guiding the tempestuous Dhruv Kapila. It wasn’t just the fiery temperament of the 25-year-old mixed doubles shuttler from Ludhiana that the 2016 Olympian understood. It was also the layers and layers of trickery and subtle intelligence that Dhruv brought to the court – from serve variations to pace manipulation – which he hid under the rage and aggression while partnering Tanisha Crasto, perhaps India’s most gutsy doubles player.“Dhruv reminds me of myself. And Tanisha is also a toofan (storm) on the court. I have to calm them down and we have a long way to go. But if there’s a fight in a long rally, my pairing will win 99 percent of the time,” Manu says from Ningbo, China, where they are the only Indians left in contention at the Badminton Asia Championships.
Indian singles was a complete bloodbath on Thursday, plummeting like global stocks these times.
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Tanisha and Dhruv, ages 25 and 21 respectively, defeated Ye Hong Wei and Nicole Gonzales Chan of Chinese Taipei 12-21, 21-16, 21-18 in 50 minutes to reach the quarterfinals of the Badminton Asia Championships. Ranked 18 currently, the Indians play World No.6 Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet of Hong Kong on Friday. Both are lefties, but aged 30 and 33. With the eyes of Asia on this tournament, it will be a grand chance for Dhruv-Tanisha to score an upset.
“We are beating good pairs, and made two finals at the German Open and Syed Modi International. But our target is to crack the Top 10 in the next two months, and Dhruv and Tanisha keep talking about winning big titles. We want that Olympic medal. But in the short term, Top 10 will keep them motivated,”” Manu enumerates their goals.
Both have prioritised mixed doubles, after reasonably satisfactory partnerships in doubles. Dhruv was Indian men’s doubles No.2 for long with MR Arjun, and Tanisha went to the Olympics with Ashwini Ponnappa, qualifying within a short period. Since combining with Dhruv in mixed last November, she is already inside the Top 20 (something she had cracked earlier with Ishaan Bhatnagar). But she’s clearly operating at a higher gear now.
“Tanisha plays in a hurry so needs to be calmed down. She needs to improve at the net, and play more accurate soft shots. But in commitment, she’s terrific. She catches every shuttle, dives around, has good power and anticipation, but needs to be alert because mixed doubles is very fast and pressured at the net,” the coach explains.Story continues below this ad
Strengths and weaknesses
They are in their element in long rallies, but it’s the first four strokes where opponents have been catching Dhruv-Tanisha out, as their starts are often tentative. “Once the game opens up, these two are good. Their makes in the first two strokes have to come down. At the Top-10 level, the start of a rally is where the pressure is. Otherwise both attack real well.”
Dhruv, in fact, has a wicked mix of flat serves and flicks, and is pickled in the pace alterations that Manu, a wily back-court enforcer and front-court setter, was known for, alongside Sumeeth Reddy at the Rio Olympics. “Dhruv is smart enough, and has moved from the drive-drive-drive pattern of men’s doubles to skill in slowing down the game. One drive, one block, get Tanisha at the net, clever lift. He’s still improving but has the smarts,” Manu says.
It’s the mental resilience that has needed some prine north Indian bonding, with a dose of controlled aggression. “Actually he (Dhruv) blames himself for every make. He’s short-tempered and gets furious very fast. If it gets to 17-all in a third game, someone needs to be there behind him who understands him. We have a good bond, since we trained in doubles, and he lens to me blindly,” he says. The snappy brat of yore, has decided to become the class monitor.
Of the three combustible constituents on court, Manu realised he as coach needed to stay calm and collected, and now happily handles the two players.
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He’s a disciplinarian too. “We want to win those All Englands and World Championship medals eventually,” he says. He knows exactly where to redirect that rage. At times, the opponents bear the brunt.