Fresh from winning the recently conducted All-India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament in Hyderabad, Nandgopal has the support of partisan crowd cheering and chanting his name during the mixed double's finale. The talented powerhouse was dribbling with energy on court and left us thrilled.





The casual guy-next-door wore a bright orange jersey and put forth a clean chit face with a hint of charm. Winning does that to you! Read on our conversation with Big K on tournament, strategy, challenges, interests and much more.





GB: The All-India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament’18, Hyderabad is a selection ground for Asian Games with Mixed Doubles as an exception, your thoughts on it?





NK: For me, selection to Asian Games squad does not matter as much as winning in the homeground does. Of course, I’m happy on winning this title with my partner Sanjana but all the matches and competitors were tough. It helped me improve my performance for the duration of the game was about an hour, the quality of the game also levelled up. Asian Games selection was not on my radar, it’s all the camp selection and we keep running regularly in the camp. When you play, you want to win it, that’s the ultimatum.





GB: What were the challenges and shortcomings you faced on-court vis a vis playing opposite to the juniors?





NK: We have to be focussed at every point and use the presence of mind in every second. It was definitely amazing to see the quality of game going up playing with the juniors. The speed and accuracy complemented throughout and by far, the indispensable measures to keep in mind.





GB: Do you think badminton is on a rise with back to back tournaments and events like BWF’s Hyderabad Open paving a way to popularize the sport?





NK: I’m very happy and proud of this. All the credit goes to Gopi Sir for his remarkable efforts in raising the standard of sport throughout the country. Everyone in singles, doubles and mixed doubles are playing really well that we did earlier. So, overall, we have some of the best players in world Top 50 which has inspired the juniors to take this sport. The quality of coaches and trainers has also improved with time, so all credit goes to the credits and trainers.





GB: Why does India have non-consistent and limited doubles players as compared to the International doubles?





NK: As of now, we have coaches specializing in singles but now we have new Indonesian coach from the last couple of years. He has started training us in the doubles, we have to wait for the right time to talk about it. The doubles are doing pretty well as of now representing t the Common Wealth Games. For the upcoming doubles, yes, we don’t have the required infrastructure. But certainly, we’re going strong with time and hopefully, we will be seeing some of the stars rising from these academies.





GB: What are your hobbies and interests off-court?





NK: Bikes get me going, I love riding bikes. Dogs are my stress buster. Once I go back home after my training session, I spend more time biking and playing with my dogs.