Gearing up for the All England Championship, India’s top male shuttler P. Kashyap today said the “challenging” draw does not bother him as he can beat anyone on a given day.
The world number 11 Indian will open his campaign against Jen Hao Hsu of Chinese Taipei in the men’s singles, while in the second round he is likely to meet seventh seed Kenichi Tago of Japan.
“It is a challenging draw. I feel if I can get past the initial rounds, I can go much further in the tournament. The Chinese Taipei guy is also good and (Kenichi) Tago is unpredictable, you never know when he will play well,” Kashyap, who won the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold last December, told PTI.
“Moreover, I have reached a stage in my career, where I can’t be looking at the draw and play. Now the onus is on me, if I can pick my game up on that week, I can beat anybody, doesn’t matter what is his ranking,” he added.
The London Olympics quarterfinalist had suffered a muscle pull in his right leg during the Malaysia Open but recovered completely from that. He has been busy in some intense training for the last one month.
“I have been doing some intense training for the last one month. Gopi Sir (national coach Pullela Gopichand) has changed my training and made it very intense, so the focus is on fitness. I have never done such intense training before,” he said.