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The Times of India
The Times of India
Sport
Arnab Lall Seal | TNN

Meiraba sets sights on Asiad berth after constant tours & rankings title

Manipur’s Meiraba Luwang Maisnam hopes to make the squad for the Asian Games after he won the All India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament 2023 at Bahadurgarh, Haryana, on Tuesday. In the final, he beat Bharat Raghav 21-17, 21-12 to lift his first title of this year.

“I will likely have to play another trials event but I’m optimistic of making the squad for the Asian Games,” said the former junior world No. 1.

Apart from the Asiad, Meiraba also has his eyes on Sudirman Cup which is set to take place from 14-21 May in China.

Despite the big events that lie ahead, the 20-year-old just wants to enjoy the moment. It’s after all quite an important win in his short career and it will surely help him do even better in the coming days.

What makes the win even bigger is that this is the sixth tournament that he has played since the senior nationals in March. During the nationals, he gave Kidambi Srikanth a run for his money in the second round before going down 19-21, 21-18, 17-21 in a match that lasted over an hour.

After that he took a short break of four to five days and then he hopped, jumped and skipped across the globe taking part in Thailand International Challenge, China Masters, Swiss Open, Madrid Spain Masters and Orléans Masters in France.

He then came back to India where took part in the ranking meet but obviously it was quite a challenge. “It’s very difficult to play the tournaments and then again travel,” added the youngster.

Speaking of the kind of test he faced during the tournament, he said, “The early qualifying rounds were very challenging. The opponents were tough and they played very well but despite that I was able to beat them.”

Meiraba, who still trains at Prakash Padukone Academy in Bengaluru, will be now going back home to take a much-needed break but he is quite aware that he needs to play even better to keep up the good work.

Asked which areas that he was working on over the past few months Meiraba said, “I was looking to include new things into my game and working on my skills. Currently, I think I’m playing a bit faster than before and I have also included a number of new strokes.”

Hopefully, all the hard work will finally pay off and he will be making the journey to the Asiad Games. Before that though, he deserves the quality time at his home in Manipur.

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