Rousing welcome for Gopichand

Onkar Singh

All-England badminton champion Pulella Gopichand was given a rousing reception at the Indira Gandhi International airport on his arrival late on Tuesday.

Talking to reporters, Gopichand said he would like to dedicate his victory to his mother and his father.

He described his match against world number 1 Peter Gade Christensen in the semi-finals as his toughest match of the tournament.

Gopi admitted that joining the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy has been a great help to him. At the same time, he did not forget to compliment his two other coaches -- Prasad Ganguly and Leroy D'Sa -- who had accompanied him to Birmingham for the tournament.

Gopichand told rediff.com that he planned his strategy from game to game.

"When I left India, I had no strategy and I did not expect to win the title, but as we went from game to game, we started developing a strategy and the main focus was on the game of the next day. Though, in the final, the Chinese player [Hong Chen] was ranked lower than me, the fact that he had come to the final was an indication that he was certainly one of the best players in the tournament."

Gopi was quick to admit that his game in the initial stages of the final might have shocked some of his fans. "But that is how I had planned my strategy. We knew that Hong would get tired very soon as he had had a long match in the semi-finals. According to this strategy, I was to lose a few points and tire him out before picking up my game. I knew that I was very good at the net and he had no answer to my drop shots."

The badminton ace was received at Delhi airport by former Asian badminton champion Dinesh Khanna and members of the Delhi Badminton Association. In the melee that followed after Gopi stepped out of the arrival lounge, his mother was jostled out of the cordon and Gopi refused to answer any questions from reporters till his mother was brought back to his side.

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