The 27-year-old beat Sam Parsons with relative ease.
RAJIV Ouseph might have made it seven men’s singles English National Badminton Championships in a row on Sunday, but the Hounslow ace admits he wants more players to try and knock him off his perch.
Heading into this weekend’s National Championships in Milton Keynes, all eyes were on Ouseph after he had claimed the last six men’s singles titles.
But after storming into Saturday’s semi-final without losing a game, it looked as though Ouseph’s impressive run was going to come to an end as Ben Beckman had two match points.
However Ouseph fought his way back to book his place in the final where he beat Sam Parsons with relative ease, coming through 21-9 21-8.
Having beaten Carl Baxter in the previous six finals Ouseph admitted it was nice to see a different face staring at him from the other end of the court, and he hopes this is the norm rather than the exception in future National Championships.
“I’m obviously very happy to have won for the seventh time in a row,” he said. “I was a little bit disappointed with how I played on Saturday though.
“Ben played really well but I let him take control of the game, so I tried to put that right in the final and I was pretty dominant.
“I knew that I was the favourite for the tournament and that’s what I was thinking about in the second set against Ben.
“I didn’t want to go out in a shock result, I didn’t want to lose that way and to come through that situation is very pleasing for me.
“It’s quite nice to see someone else in the final, it’s great for some of the younger guys to come through.
“I’ve seen Sam come to Milton Keynes a couple of times for training and he’s played really well this week. For him to beat Toby [Penty, second seed] in such a close match in his semi-final shows that he’s got a lot of character.
“I know that singles is a very individual event, but we all need to work together in this country to bring the level up together.
“As the oldest and the best at the moment it’s up to me a little bit more, but I’m looking for these guys to keep pushing me and do well internationally in the next couple of years.”
Next up for Ouseph is the European Championships in Basel that start later this week.
But despite this triumph Ouseph is not about to make any bold predictions for England out in Switzerland.
“We’ll take the team champs in Basel one match at a time as we’ve got a couple of tough matches in our group,” he said.
“We’re leaving for it on Monday morning so it kicks off quite soon. We’re looking to get through the group and then see what happens from there.”
Tickets for the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships at the NIA in Birmingham are available at www.allenglandbadminton.com or call the box office on 0844 444 9994.
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