RAJIV OUSEPH:
GOING FOR A HAT-TRICK
Richard Eaton reports
What has been helping Rajiv Ouseph forward over the past few
months may also be what holds him back this week.
The English national champion is better equipped than ever
before as he attempts a sequence of three men's singles titles
in a row, something which only three players have previously
done.
But what has made Ouseph fitter, faster, more confident and more
successful than before has also been helping two men who aim to
beat him.
He has risen closer to the world's top 20 with his nearest
domestic rivals right on his heels – quite literally. That's
because England's three best men all now train and work
together.
This is enabling them to pull each other up the world ladder.
But over the next three days it may provide the main challengers
with much of what they need to know about the champion.
“I am ranked above everyone else, but we are all roughly the
same standard,” Ouseph says of his sparring partners, Andrew
Smith and Carl Baxter, and also of the number four seed, Harry
Wright. “So if I have to play any of them in the final, it will
be a difficult game.
“Ben Beckman has beaten Harry, but Harry has had his best year
so far and he too will be a threat. I expect us to be the four
semi-finalists.”
The most intriguing development is the presence of Smith, who
for many years did much of his training in Malaysia, and who is
competing in the English national championships for only the
third time in six years.
At the age of 25 and with weapons capable of hurting top level
players, Smith has not so far had the results one might hope
from such talent, and is testing anew the value of playing the
nationals.
It may give him a welcome taste of new pressure. England's
leading players are expected to win here, and accustomising
himself to that may serve Smith well. At the Olympics in Beijing
18 months ago, it seemed to be the pressure of the occasion – a
different pressure admittedly - which affected his game.
Despite this, the presence of the former England number one
should help make it the best men's singles event for years: his
threatening style should contrast well with the deftness,
elegant reach, and well-worked patterns of Ouseph's game.
“We train together all the time, and it's a good atmosphere,”
Ouseph said. “He's pretty helpful – and we have pushed each
other along for a while now. Before, with Andrew training in
Asia, it was difficult. Me and Carl (Baxter) were on our own.
But since Andrew came back, it's been better.”
Ouseph's progress has depended much on getting fitter and
stronger, something he initially did with Asger Madsen, and
after the Dane moved away, with Peter Jeffrey, with increasing
success.
He won a few EBU tournaments, improved enough to play a few
Super Series tournaments, and gained a great win over Wong Choon
Hann, the former Commonwealth champion from Malaysia. Overcoming
the setbacks involved in the tough transition to the
international game's shop-window circuit is helping gradually to
elevate Ouseph to the next level.
“Players are much more professional and it's a lot harder to get
victories,” he says. “And there are big arenas to get used to.
It takes some getting used to. You just have to accept that you
will get some hard draws. It's a question of, when you get a
good draw, capitalising on it.”
So how do the English nationals fit into such far-flung
ambitions, ones which require him to spend so much time on the
far side of the world?
“The nationals do have a big tournament feeling about them. They
put it on pretty well. It has a pretty big crowd, and it's
efficiently done. It's like a mini All-England,” he said.
“It's also a chance for everyone to see how players are coming
along, to see how they are in pressure situations. In
international competition you can't always be expected to win.
But in the nationals you are.”
And it no longer became necessary to ask him who he thought
would do so........ |
 |
