Monash badminton star goes out on a high

Athi (second from right) and the badminton team with their Nationals golds.

Monash Engineering student and badminton champion Athithan (Athi) Selladurai has been a busy man. 

With an impending graduation ceremony on the horizon, Athi somehow managed to compete in four different international tournament’s this past month and he got some very exciting results.

With stops at the Perth International, South Australia International, Sydney International and UniSport Nationals, Athi faced everything from National Champions to Commonwealth Games superstars.

All of his hard work toiling away against some of the best in the world culminated in a fourth consecutive Nationals gold medal, but it didn’t come easily.

Prior to nationals and after a month of rigorous training and injury battles, Athi found himself up against a former Sri Lankan National Champion in Round 1 of the Perth International.

With expectations low, he decided to play freely and without pressure in what was his first international competition of what would be a busy month.

“My training leading up to that (Perth International) had been quite good, I knew it was going to be a busy month, so leading up to it the training was really solid,” Selladurai said.

“I’ve got a partial tear in my rotator cuff, which has been a problem the whole year…I was weary of that but otherwise everything was quite good.

“I knew it was going to be a tough game…I went into it thinking that I was going to lose.”

To everyone’s surprise, even his own, Athi managed to win the first set 21 – 18, before losing in three sets.

Athi said he took a lot out of the match and was impressed with his own efforts, forcing his opponent to sweat a little more than perhaps he had planned.

“I executed my game plan really well,” Selladurai said.

“It was a confidence booster and he (Sri Lankan National Champion) went all the way through to the semi-finals.

“After that performance I wasn’t disappointed because I knew I’d played really well.”

Unfortunately for Monash’s main badminton man, the confidence from his performance in Perth got the best of him in South Australia.

Up against a young British up-and-comer, Athi knew it was a winnable match, which was ultimately his un-doing in SA.

“I went into that game putting a lot of pressure on myself and it totally backfired on me,” Selladurai said.

“Against the Sri Lankan guy…I was playing risk free badminton, whereas against the British guy I was playing so passively.

“I wasn’t playing to win, I was playing not to lose.”

Following a disappointing straight sets loss in South Australia, Athi set his sights on the Syndey International.

Pitted against one of Korea’s top badminton players, the task was simple: forget the result and focus on playing risk-free badminton in preparation for Nationals.

However, Athi was overcome with illness the morning prior to the competition and there were moments when it looked like he wouldn’t play at all.

Athi (bottom left) is now a four-time champ.

“I was up against a top Korean player so it would have been a really good experience and I knew I didn’t have any pressure to win it,” Selladurai said.

“When I stepped on court I seemed to be okay and I gave a really good fight.

“Out of the three tournaments I’d say that was my best performance and he (Korean opponent) was probably the best player that I played.”

The final result was a close, hard-fought, two set loss.

Then came Nationals.

Athi said he had learned a lot from his recent tournaments and was ready to lead Monash to victory.

“We came into it as one of the favourites but earlier in the year we lost to Melbourne Uni at Varsity,” Selladurai said.

“When we got there (Nationals), every round was a challenge, there’s probably a national level player on every team.”

The big match-up for Athi came when he and Monash faced Melbourne Uni for the second time this year, the winner would play in the gold medal match-up.

Both Athi and his opponent were under the weather, fighting it out fuelled only by guts and determination.

“I found myself up 15-10 in the second set, but then he got up 20-18 and I was thinking ‘gee I can’t play a third set’ because I was quite unwell and needed to win immediately,” Selladurai said.

“I’ve always done well in team events with teammates supporting me and I managed to pull out four big points in a row and pull off the win.”

Monash went on to win against Melbourne before defeating UNSW in the gold medal match-up without losing a set, winning a fourth consecutive UniSport Nationals gold.

“It’s nice to get four golds and hopefully the first and second years can carry it on (in future),” Selladurai said.

“All these tournaments I’m playing, I’m actually looking to next year…there’s the Australian National Championships and the Oceania Championships which are two big goals of mine in February of 2020.”

Athi now leaves Uni a four-time Nationals gold medallist and with his sights set on the future, be on the look-out for big things to come. 

Written by Joseph Arthur, Media Coordinator