INTERVIEW: Badminton world No1 Carolina Marin

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  • In action in Dubai: Carolina Marin.

    The day Carolina Marin came face to face with her idol Rafael Nadal for the first time, last April at the Madrid Masters, the Spanish two-time world badminton champion could not conceal her excitement.

    “Today has been an important day for me because I finally got to meet Rafa Nadal. Thanks for letting me meet you,” an elated Marin posted on her Twitter page. Nadal tweeted a picture of them together at the Caja Magica tennis stadium that day – a pair of Spanish lefties, standing side by side, each an icon responsible for revolutionising their respective sport in one way or another.

    Except Nadal, a 14-time grand slam tennis champion, is a globally-recognisable figure, his face plastered on billboards worldwide, and his fans well up in the millions in both the virtual and real world.

    With Rafael Nadal in April.

    While up until a year ago, Marin could walk around Madrid unnoticed and was more popular in some countries in Asia than in her own hometown in Andalucia. Such is the reality of being a badminton star from Spain but Marin, the current world No. 1, is slowly changing that as she continues to make history for her country in the sport.

    The 22-year-old from Huelva is the first Spanish shuttler to top the world rankings, to capture a Grand Prix Gold title, and to win the World Championship – which she has achieved twice, in 2014 and 2015.

    In a sport heavily dominated by Asians, Marin has emerged as a true pioneer and it all started by accident. She stumbled upon the sport when she was eight years old.

    Back in Huelva, in the south of Spain, she was performing a flamenco dance and later when she was walking around the venue with her friends she came across a hall where some people were playing badminton.

    Marin never looked back from then on.

    “I liked it because it’s a strange sport, the racquet is different from tennis and also the shuttle. So I just continued playing and I liked it,” Marin revealed ahead of her winning debut in the Dubai World Super Series Finals at the Hamdan Sports Complex on Wednesday.

    But when did she realise she could actually make a career out of the sport? “When I went to the National Centre when I was 14 years old and my coach asked me what was my highest dream in the sport, what I wanted to get in my badminton career. I said ‘I want to be the world No. 1, world champion, Olympic champion and European champion’,”

    Marin says. “So since I was young, I just dreamt high.”

    She relocated to Madrid to train at the National Centre and since there were barely any players at her level available in the country, Marin had to practise with the boys.

    “Now badminton is getting more popular in Spain, after my first World Championship (title in 2014),” she adds. “So now maybe you can see sometimes in the street that there are children or people playing badminton.”

    Marin comes to the UAE occupying the No. 1 spot in both the world rankings and the Destination Dubai rankings, which count the points amassed from all the Super Series tournaments throughout the year.

    In 2015, she successfully defended her World Championship crown in August and has collected five more Super Series trophies, including one at the prestigious All England Open. Thanks to her unprecedented achievements, Marin is becoming a popular figure back home with her face appearing in all the major newspapers and congratulatory messages pouring in with every victory, including one from Nadal after a win over Saina Nehwal in the World Championship final.

    Marin identifies with Nadal in more ways than one and it is not just because they are both southpaws.

    “I think I compare with Rafa because we have the same character,” she explains. “We fight until the end, we show our opponents we want to beat them, we die until the match is gone. That’s why Rafa is my idol.”

    “He was impressed with my performance during the last two or three years because I became somewhat of an icon in Spain and I showed that we have some good badminton players in Spain.

    “He played but he doesn’t like it because he says badminton is too tiring,” she adds with a laugh.

    And if the indefatigable Nadal says badminton is too tiring – it’s little wonder he’s impressed by Marin. Just like Nadal, who is renowned for spending endless hours on court training, Marin attributes her success this year to placing an extra focus on practice.

    She says she trains for seven hours a day, six days a week, which in no doubt places significant strain on her body. The young shuttler considers her World Championship title defence as the highlight of her season because it came after sustaining an injury that almost ruled her out of the event.

    “It was an important tournament for me because one month before the World Championship I got an injury in my right foot and we had to change my preparation and we didn’t know if I could play or not until one and a half week before it,” she admits. “So it was really hard for my body and also for my mental condition.”

    She wasn’t as lucky last year when she didn’t make the cut for the Super Series Finals in Dubai having suffered an injury after the Worlds. That is precisely why she has some extra motivation to perform well this week in the Emirates.

    “I feel so excited because it’s my first time here in Dubai and it’s also my first time to play Super Series Finals so I’m very excited to start here,” says Marin, who claimed the BWF Player of the Year Award at a gala in Dubai on Monday night.

    With the Olympics coming up next year in Rio de Janeiro, Marin is eyeing an even bigger award, a gold medal that would see her fulfil every dream she spoke about with her coach as a 14-year-old.

    “I want to focus on the tournaments before the Olympics and then after May I will keep my focus on the Olympics,” she says calmly. “Of course there is pressure on me to get a medal for Spain. But I don’t see it as pressure. I just want to do my best and to enjoy the tournament.”

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