PRAKASH PADUKONE: ALL ENGLAND, 1980 - OF GUTS AND GLORY

It was equal to the Wimbledon. And Padukone's win was a seminal event. Indian parents saw a new path to glory opening up for their children–and the young ones leapt up for the smash

- BY SUHANI SINGH

Tall, lithe and sure-footed, only 75 kg for his 6'1" frame, he covered the court like a llama might canter over an Andean slope. Prakash Padukone also straddled two parallel styles: touch artistry and power. If his deft drop shots were arguments, they would have been duplicitous: looking east, going west. But he also had a lethal half-smash that went straight as an arrow. More than everything, there was that supreme spatial-temporal court intelligence. Which shot to play, when, where. Listen to his own description of how he slowed down the hyper-kinetic Liem Swie King, disarming the Indonesian of his heavy weaponry, in the All England final of 1980: “I would make him move just a fraction of a second late because I was holding back my stroke. If he was expecting a toss, I would play a drop. If he was expecting a drop, I would play a stroke. He couldn’t antic