Scot aims to grab the spotlight
Author: Sunday Herald
Date: 20 Nov 2005
Category: Interviews
SUSAN Hughes is enjoying her moment in the media spotlight. The second of three successive interviews has been completed and the latest photographer has her smiling into yet another lens. She recognises the novelty of the situation, but also its value.
"I don't know if I'd like to be famous, but it would be nice to be recognised occasionally, although I wouldn't like it to be on a level like Paris Hilton or anything," she said, before dissolving into laughter.
Hughes is 23 and one of those garr ulous and funny Glaswegians you take to instantly. She is also one of badminton's rising stars, ranked 24 in the world in singles. "Not a lot of people know that," as Michael Caine might say.
Her public profile, however, could yet be about to nudge above anonymity.
In October she won the Czech Open and last week she returned from China having reached the quarter-finals of one of the world's premier tourn aments. Claiming the scalp of world No 5 Xu Huaiwen on the way to the final eight represented the biggest win of her career.
From Guangzhou to the less exotic surroundings of Scotstoun, recent days have found her back at the national training centre and preparing for the Bank of Scotland International Champ ionships, which begin at the Kelvin Hall on Thursday.
The tournament, one of the oldest in the sport, has attracted a record entry of more than 300 players from 42 nations. The standard of competition means Scotland has just two singles players automatically qualified for the main draw - Hughes and Yuan Wemyss, the defending champion, Chinese-born, but now very much settled in Dumfries and known more familiarly as Rita.
"In terms of money and ranking points, it is not on the scale of the China Open, but as a Scottish player you always want to do well in your home tournament," said Hughes, the reigning Scottish National champion.
"People might read about your results in the papers, but they cannot put it in perspective when they don't see you play. It is not as if badminton is shown on television a lot in this country.
"And unless you know about badminton - and how many do - it's like ‘the quarter-finals in China.....so what?'
"I'd just like to play well in front of home fans...well, not exactly fans because I don't have any fans - I mean the home crowd and show them what I can do."
Hughes set herself a target at the beginning of this year. Beat a player ranked in the world top 15, then one in the top 10 and maybe even one in the top five. She jumped straight to phase three in China.
"I've been competing with the top 15 players for about a year now, but not beating them. And competing with them and beating them are two very different things. But in China everything clicked. Everything came off and my game plan totally worked.
"I think players of the quality of the Chinese girl, when they get taken that close, they're like, ‘oh my God, I shouldn't be having this much trouble against some Scot'.
"To be honest, I didn't realise what I'd achieved until I came off court. But now I look at it as something I have to build on. Doing it once was great, but you have to try and do it consistently to get your ranking up."
Her success in China was rewarded by a leap up the rankings, overtaking Yuan Wemyss in the process. And a little friendly rivalry is no bad thing according to the psychology student, who is the final stages of completing her degree at the University of Stirling.
"I want to be better than her and I'm sure she wants to be better than me. That's healthy and it has got to be good for Scottish badminton that there are two of us up there," said Hughes.
The other reward for stunning success in China was the biggest pay day of her short professional career. That she has already joked about her Armani tracksuit - it's Yonex actually - and the shopping spree she plans to go on now she is "loaded" tells you everything you need to know about where badminton sits in the sporting rich list.
"The most I'd ever won before was £250, but for China I got £1,500. That seems an amazing amount of money to me."
Hughes is astute enough to know the question which automatically follows on from her fiscal revelation. Until the age of about 14 she played tennis as well as badminton before deciding to pursue the one which she was better at. So, no regrets?
"You make your choice of what you're going to do and it is just the way it is. At 14 you're not thinking ‘well, I'll choose tennis because I'll make more money out of it'," she said.
"But the difference between tennis and badminton is unreal. I hear Andy Murray has got a £1.25 million contract with Fred Perry. And I get the feeling if Andy beat a Lleyton Hewitt or Andy Roddick right now he would probably be knighted!
"But I don't feel hard done by. Support from the Lottery and the Scottish Institute of Sport means I'm not scraping the barrel. There are many other sports which are a lot worse off than badminton. I've money to cover everything I need; training, tournaments and equipment. And I'm doing something I love which is a damn sight better than a normal job."
Murray has been propelled to stardom as he has risen to 66 in the tennis rankings. Hughes, rated 42 places higher in her particular field, is a fan of her younger compatriot and is canny enough to recognise that to dwell on such comparisons between the two sports would only be invidious and unrewarding.
And she might yet have her big moment in the national spotlight. Next March she will be one of five badminton players who will represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
The number of players - or rather lack of them - is controversial in itself, since it means Scotland will not be able to defend the team bronze medal won in Manchester in 2002.
Appeals failed to change Badminton Scotland's position on that issue; the governing body insisting that strict selection rules stipulated by the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland meant it could not nominate any more competitors.
Hughes says she tried to stay out of the row, although her unease at the scale of the controversy is evident. But her main focus for the season ahead is Melbourne and hopefully a medal.
"After the Olympics, in Britain certainly, it's the next biggest thing because you can get some publicity outside the tiny badminton world. And I've a chance of actually doing something there.
"There are probably about eight players in the world's top 25 who are Commonwealth athletes, so it's not as if I'm a sure-fire medal chance. The competition is so strong I could lose in the first round.
"But, on the other hand, I could win a medal. I feel in the form of my life, my training is going well and the Commonwealth Games fall right for the badminton season. And how many people have a chance to represent Scotland at a Commonwealth Games, let alone go with a chance of winning a medal?"
Her confidence is high. This week at the Kelvin Hall she reckons she could reach the semi-finals. But, after recent events, you sense anything is possible. Even a tiny bit of well-earned fame.
