Priyanshu Rajawat captivates with net play to sink Wang, enters quarters of Australian Open Super 500 | Badminton News

Deception with stops and pushes from the net Priyanshu Rajawat boggled Wang Tzu Wei enough for the Indian to secure a 21-8, 13-21, 21-19 victory over the Taiwanese and make the quarterfinals of the Australian Open Super 500 tournament at Sydney. Rajawat’s backhand at the net was in such fine form that it helped him open up the court and close out the match even though Wang threatened with some power net play of his own.
Twice in the last fortnight, Rajawat had struggled to finish against Kodai Naraoka and Lakshya Sen in three. On Thursday in Sydney, playing someone marginally higher ranked than him at No 28, the World No 31 Indian used his backhand net pushes to good effect as he won in the decider in 59 minutes.
His intention was quite clear from the first point, when he took the characteric side stride forward. Left leg plonked heel to toe, his right leg would stride forward and across from midcourt to the net, as his backhand worked at the reach to get on top of the shuttle. From there the variations and deception of the backhand flowed.
Rajawat has a handy cross smash from the back when he opened the court, but the net pushes into Wang’s body were completely confounding the Taiwanese. At least a third of the Indian 21-year-old’s points throughout the match came from the backhand on the forecourt. He would lead 11-4 and lurking at the forecourt, use front and back deception to keep Wang muddled.

Rajawat led 16-5 and floated another backhand at an awkward length towards Wang to stay up 19-7. Wang was often left taking evasive action and hitting wide, as the Indian’s wry backhand came flat at him at times and parabolaed at others. Wang would smash wide at 21-8 to go a set down.
Rajawat would go into a defensive shell in the second, as Wang took over the net dominance and ran away with the second 21-13 to level sets.
The battle was still at the net at the start of the third. But at 3-3 came a wonderful rally where Rajawat unfurled the whole range of his strokes and then some more. Moving in an 180 arc were backhand variations, including a reflex defensive return followed a proper pirouette, and he recovered from the spin to play a few more attacking shots to end with a deep cross smash winner.
The net dominance continued with fast exchanges at 11-11 and a push to Wang’s body to start breaking away at 14-12. Rajawat would go upto 18-13 on the back of push at net-cross smash and followup combo, and reach match point at 20-16 with a cross smash. Wang would attack from the net the next three points to come to within a point at 20-19. Rajawat would push Wang’s serve to the back in a final throw of dice, as the Taiwanese sent the shuttle wide to give the Indian an entry into the quarters.
Impressive footwork
At the heart of Rajawat’s net movement lies his exquisite footwork – it always had speed, but it’s getting better in strength now. Rajawat has always been agile and quick on the net charging from back to front, but it is in how smooth, flexible and attacking the striding is on the day, when moving from the net back to the midcourt that helps him open up the court.
Training on recovery from the net to the push to the centre and coming back has been on, as his coaching team supports his superior attack with balance in his foot speed. Good reach is important to create an opening for the attack at the net, and Rajawat showed good footwork to dominate at the net.

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When Priyanshu was picked as an under 10 at Pullela Gopichand’s Gwalior academy and then catapulted to Hyderabad, it was because of his footspeed. Even when he hadn’t shot up in height, his sprint to the net was very good, and striding was natural.
His coaching team has supplemented the speed with good technical recovery footwork training from the corners. As he moves up from Super 300 level to regularly playing the Super 500 and 750s, he will need to temper his speed with patience as he did against Wang Tzu Wei in Sydney, to be able to open up the court at crucial points.
There is also the explosive jump that is work in progress, and his team are working on its movement and strength. Some of his strokes are mirror images of Kidambi Srikanth, and it will be a regal battle at the net once more when the two face off in the quarters.