Having pulled off the upset of the tournament on Thursday, Iskandar Zulkarnain let out an ecstatic yell as he collapsed on his back on the court. And why not? His opponent, Kidambi Srikanth, second seed at the India Open, had just hit a smash just wide of the tramlines. It was the stroke that would hand Zulkarnain a 21-19, 21-17 win and a place in the quarterfinals.
"It's the biggest win of my career," said Zulkarnain, ranked 85th in the world, who had to come through qualifying to enter the main draw.
It's a scenario the Malaysian could have scarcely imagined a few months back. Closing in on his 27th birthday, he must have felt his best days were behind him. Having won a silver medal at the 2009 Junior World Championships, he had been marked as the heir apparent to Lee Chong Wei, but had struggled to find the same success in his senior career. He had been solid, but not spectacular, achieving a career-high ranking of 23 and a runners-up finish at the 2015 Malaysia Masters.
Then, in 2016, he suffered a career-threatening injury. "I suffered a slipped disc in my back. I was unable to play for six months," he says. His return was anything but promising. After suffering defeat after defeat, he made an early exit at the South East Asian Games in August last year. "I was distraught. I returned to competitions in May after recovering from my back injury but I couldn't get good results. The KL Games was the final straw," he told local media then. "My playing is okay but I can't seem to handle my mental state. I just can't forgive myself here," he had said.
Zulkarnain now says he was almost resigned to his fate."I spoke to my coach some time ago. I told him if I wasn't getting results this year I might as well quit," he said.
The year had started less than auspiciously with a loss at his home event -- the Malaysia Masters. Yet, his victory against Srikanth, winner of four Superseries tournaments in 2017, showed the potential he still had. It wasn't as if the Indian was playing poorly -- the Malaysian forced Srikanth into making errors.
The Indian was playing his first tournament since suffering an abdominal strain at the start of the year but didn't appear to be in any discomfort during the match. Srikanth showed grace after the defeat, crediting his opponent's performance. "I wasn't playing badly but he was just winning the crucial points," said Srikanth. The Malaysian pulled ahead from 16-all in the opening game and then recovered from 14-16 down in the second game. The Malaysian's defensive prowess came in for special praise. "He was recovering the shuttle all the time. He was picking them up from crazy positions," Srikanth said.
While Srikanth will now return to the drawing board to pick himself up ahead of a busy year. Zulkarnain will look to enter the tournament weekend when he takes on Sameer Verma in the quarterfinals. Regardless of how he does then, he might find the motivation to keep playing for a while longer.
"Perhaps I won't quit at the end of this year after all," he said.