The Commonwealth Championship starts on Sunday. What are your expectations from this tournamentIJ
I am looking forward to the tournament and I am excited about it. I want to return to winning ways and this tournament could be the one where I really hit form. I am positive not only about my performance, but also about our team. I have been playing well through the years and now we have several good players. We have current national champion and 2012 london Olympian Soumyajit Ghosh who has been doing well recently and Anthony Amalraj is also an experienced player. So, we have a strong team this time as well. This could be my last tournament with Sunhajit Saha. So, I am confident of us doing well here.
How have you prepared for itIJ
I have prepared well for this tournament. I had a break of two months before I played in the Asia Cup in mid-April where I did quite well. Although I did not win the trophy, I defeated some of the players against whom I was struggling before. After the Asia Cup, I joined my team which was training in Sweden and we practiced with the Swedish national team, which was quite good. I believe I am in fine form.
Will playing at home be an advantageIJ
Yes, to some extent. But, it is also about handling a lot of pressure as I will be defending my doubles crown with Saha and I had finished second in singles in the previous edition held at Glasgow in 2009. The pressure comes from expectations from various quarters like the home crowd, media, coaches, officials, parents and friends.
Who do you think will pose the biggest challenge at the Commonwealth ChampionshipsIJ
A lot of good players will be competing here and I need to be ready for them.
You recently joined one of the best clubs in the world — Borussia Dusseldorf. So, how big a step is that for youIJ
The experience was wonderful. It’s a dream come true for me to play alongside the legendary Timo Boll. To make a really bad comparision, Borussia in my game is like Manchester United in world football. I hope to learn various new things during my stint with the club. So, It’s a huge step in my career.
In the last couple of years, you have missed out on the 2012 Olympics and also lost at the national level, where you used to be invincible. So, what went wrong during that phase and have you changed your playing style after thatIJ
It was a form slump for me and I missed the Olympics and also lost in India. As I said, it was a tough phase and I struggled. But, it was not that I was totaly down and out. Yes, I was not winning the tournaments. But, I was in the top eight or top 16 in every tournament.
After this, I realised that my strong point was my forehand and the new generation plays the backhand really well. So, I improved my backhand play and adjusted couple of things.
Going forward, have you set any particular targetsIJ
I am running slightly behind my target. Right now, my world ranking is 70 and I would like to take that to inside top 50 by July and later, the ultimate aim is the 2016 Olympics.
You are 30 now and not getting any younger. How much table tennis do you think is left in you and how are you maintaining your fitnessIJ
My target is to play 2016 Rio Olympics and I am working towards that. I have realized that I have become more mature in terms of skill but I need to work more on my fitness. In this age, you tend to become more prone to injuries. So, I have planned a set of regimen to maintain my fitness. Among three training sessions a day, I do skill training on two and rest one is saved for fitness training. Right now, I am feeling as fit as ever and I have become lighter by four or five kilos.
How do you see the talent in new crop of Indian playersIJ
Nowadays, Indian players have much more facilities to fall back on and they are also doing well. There is much more competition than in my time between the kids. Not only Ghosh, other players — Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty, Sathiyan Ganasekaran and Nitin Philips Vasanth — also have been pushing each other to go higher. Ghosh has broken away from them with a couple of good shows. So, the new players are talented.