In England, young badminton players tend to take a liking to doubles, but 19-year-old British junior national champion Jamie Bonsel prefers to stay single, at least on court.
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In England, young badminton players tend to take a liking to doubles, but 19-year-old British junior national champion Jamie Bonsel prefers to stay single, at least on court.
In India, to spend three weeks the first of which will see him participate in the All-India Tata Open badmintonu00a0 tournament, he plans to spend the next fortnight at the Prakash Padukone Academy in Bangalore. Bonsel is also keen to find a quality partner to spar with quickly, something he looks forward to at the Padukone Academy.
India calling
"Actually, I was to come to India last year, but missed out due to injury," added Bonsel, who met Padukone for the first time only yesterday. Though he is excited at the prospect of locking horns with top India players like Chetan Anand and Anand Pawar, his top priority is to get some serious sparring at the Padukone Academy.
"Sparring back home is a big problem. Top players tend to be away playing on the European circuit. And when they are away, there's hardly a quality player to spar with. So, it made sense to come to India," said Bonsel, ranked 128 in the world. But despite the fact that England has been doing well in doubles and mixed doubles in recent years, Bonsel insisted they are looking up in singles too.
"There are players like Ben (Bagman) and (Harry) Wright who have done exceptionally well. Also playing on the Europe circuit helps a lot."
But even as Bonsel hopes to specialise in singles, he admitted it's hard playing against the dominant Asians. "They are just too good," he said.
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