Much is made of the sporting benefits of returning to the scene of past glories and Frenchman Brice Leverdez made the most of doing so as he produced the first major upset of the World Badminton Championships in The Emirates Arena yesterday.
The 31-year-old had not played at the venue since winning the Scottish Open Grand Prix four years ago, but he has even better reason to feel good about it now after eliminating one of the sport’s all-time greats Lee Chong Wei, the second seed who had been portrayed as a man on a mission.
“I love this hall… I love this hall,” Leverdez gushed after their enthralling 75 minute battle.
“I feel the same way as I played here before. Of course I play better now, but I feel good in this hall. It’s like All England, you can see perfectly, the hall is a bit slow which I like. It’s great to play here and the crowd was crazy. So many French people, so many Malaysians, it was fun on court.”
And having fun was key to his plan for the encounter as he got himself into a state of mind he has been pursuing for some time.
“I told myself to go on court and enjoy today,” said a man who was swept off court by the same opponent when they met earlier this year during the All England Championships, but who also had the memory of a victory in a similar match to yesterdays, when he took two minutes longer to beat the Malaysian, to draw upon.
“I’ve been trying to do that for many years but I have hardly ever succeeded. However in the last few months and going back to the Denmark Open last year when I played well, I told myself I had to try to find that state of mind every time I go on court. It’s not an easy process, but now I am finding my way to prepare for that and to be like that in every match I’m playing.
“I knew it would be a great game, that it would be very tough and I knew what I had to do tactically, so it’s about managing to keep focused and keep relaxed on court. That’s a combination I now start to understand more and more,” he explained.
That mood was conveyed with many smiles as key points were won fortuitously either way and the odd Gallic shrug, while he had to overcome some major setbacks. Those included seeing a 15-10 lead turned into a 16-15 deficit in the opening game before he then recovered to take it 21-19 then, potentially more damagingly, seeing a decision that would have won him the match overturned in the second set. Having earned a second match point as 22-21, Leverdez left a shuttle which was called out, only for his opponent to immediately request a review. On any other court other than centre - the only one where the review system is available - he would have won and the result was momentarily posted on the scoreboard and online, amusingly resulting in him subsequently picking up a message from his coach in France prematurely congratulating him.
“I thought I was going to lose that challenge… I knew I was, so I thought ‘S***, I should have played that one,’ because I was there early, I could have won the point after that shot, but I let it go and I knew it was going to be in, so that’s OK,” he said, however.
Many another would have buckled when he then lost the next two points to lose the set and it looked as if he had done so when he subsequently found himself trailing in the decider.
“I knew I was in trouble at 15-10 in the third, but I said to myself play safe, try to get in the game again and wait maybe for one or two errors from him and show him that you’re not going to give him any easy points and it worked,” he said. “I had two or three lucky shots as well and Chong Wei made two or three easy mistakes, then we arrived at 17 all and I think he completely lost his mind at that stage because he gave me three easy points. I think he really felt the pressure.”
His victory has offered encouragement to everyone in his half of the draw, but from a personal point of view Leverdez has sufficient self-awareness to know not get ahead of himself.
“When you beat Lee Chong Wei you feel like the draw is open now, but it’s never open, especially with me,” he laughed. “I know I can lose against anyone, I can win against anyone, so I have to stay focused on my game and in the same mindset.”
There was meanwhile a suggestion that The Emirates Arena crowd may have witnessed history as the three time beaten finalist at both the Olympics and the World Championships admitted it would be difficult to recover from this latest disappointment.
“I don’t know my plans now. Maybe I’ll retire tomorrow. My brain is zero now,” said Lee, smiling ruefully. “I’ve never given up, I’ve just tried at every World Championships and every Olympics and I know everyone wants to know if I’m going to try one more Olympics in 2020, but I cannot answer this question because I don’t know right now. I have to see if I still have the fire to still play. If I don’t have the fire then maybe I’ll retire. We’ll see how I feel. I don’t know.”
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