After CWG haul, Sathiyan looks to add more spice to his shots

Commonwealth Games in Birmingham earlier this month. Be it gold (team's event), silver in men's doubles with Sharath Kamal or bronze in individual category --- the 29-year-old won it all. For someone known to show his aggressive side on court, Sathiyan broke down after defeating England's Paul Drinkhall 11-9, 11-3, 11-5, 9-11, 9-11, 10-12, 11-9 to win the individual bronze medal.

"While every medal that I have won for my country is special, I surprised myself by getting emotional after clinching that bronze medal. Ahead of the tournament, an individual medal was one of my targets and to have achieved that --- was very special. I don't remember when was the last time I cried in court," Sathiyan told TOI.

The World No. 37 was pleased with the way his body held up through the gruelling schedule. "The work that my strength and conditioning coach Ramji Srinivasan did paid dividends.

He kept me in the best possible shape because we were playing multiple matches a day. To top that, having coach S Raman sir was a big blessing. Those little inputs during crunch situations helped a lot," Sathiyan mentioned.

While Sathiyan is pleased with how things panned out at the quadrennial event, there are areas that need work. Firstly, he is keen to add more power to his stroke-making. To top that, Sathiyan believes he can get stronger physically.

"I want to add more spice to my shots. That can happen when I put in more hours in strengthening my core. Ramji has already chalked out a schedule for me which I will be following going forward.