Badminton News: Dhruv Kapila and Arjun wins the long-awaited first international title

They had previously not tasted victory in any International Challenge or any championship. 

Failure to win the Maharashtra International Challenge (IC) at Manakapur, Koradi Road, would have compelled them to continue playing Challenges - a bottom-tier level - as dictated by Coach Mathias Boe.  

However, Coach Pulella Gopichand allowed them to skip the event and move on to Raipur if Arjun and Dhruv Kapila clinched the title at Nagpur.

They lost two IC matches in the finals – in Bangladesh to Manu Attri- Sumeeth Reddy – and another in Nepal, leaving them no choice but to grab a title victory. 

In the tournament's final match, Arjun-Dhruv squandered a match point in the second set, forcing the game into a decider as their opponents - Chaloempon Charoenkitamrn and Nanthakarn Yordphaisong of Thailand, held on. 

Dhruv-Arjun has a record of losing match points.

The pair have set up a detailed history of losing from match points. They were pitted against Koreans Choi-Kim at the Japan Open and were leading 21-20 along with a game up before they conceded the decider.  

Similarly, they were leading 20-17 in the decider against Malaysian Ong-Teo at the Thailand Open 2021 before giving it up for 24-22. Luckily, they showed improvement at the Thomas Cup and started to win close matches. 

Hoping to clear their dues, the duo fought back from 13-15 in the third game against the Thais, winning their first-ever circuit title at 21-17, 20-22, 21-18 in 78 minutes. 

"There was pressure to win the title because coaches had told us title-or-keep playing ICs! We took it as a challenge because there weren't many ranking points or anything in it," said Arjun reflectively. 

The world number 26 pair beat a three-point deficit in the second game after winning the first one and finally led 20-19. "I thought of hammering it, but they were ready for it," said Dhruv. 

The Indians were confident about winning the set as Arjun launched a regular dipping serve, but Dhruv couldn't pull his attack in place. Subsequently, a long rally at the beginning of the decider was a battle for early dominance.

 "I mean, we knew we can't give it away after winning the opener and we could win it. We had our plans and kept it simple," Dhruv added. 

Coach Vijaydeep Singh motivated them to be calm but aggressive in the third set. "The Indian recovery was good, even after the long rally where all four looked exhausted. But Dhruv-Arjun played crucial points better after that and analysed excellently," he remarked.

The opponents were hitting well, but after a lengthy period of perseverance, Dhruv-Arjun won the title and possibly played their last International Challenge.