Russia has over the past decade produced some top stars, winning Olympic, continental and world tour medals. At the moment, there is a lot of excitement in the young talents coming through. 

At the 2019 European U17 Championships, Russia came back from Gniezno, Poland, with six medals, with two of them golds in women’s singles and doubles. Leading this generation of talented teens is Georgii Karpov, the gold medalist from the 2017 European U17 Championships in men’s singles. In that tournament, he defeated the phenomenon Christo Popov, commenting on this, Karpov states. 

- The victory in this tournament was not a surprise for me as I had already played several times with Christo Popov before. Also, no one could predict the outcome of the game and the score was a reliable confirmation of it. At that moment I did not think about the medal, I just tried to feel in tune with the upcoming game. During that tournament I believed in myself and I think it helped me to win the game.

Karpov, 18, reached the quarterfinals of the European Junior Championships in 2018, narrowly losing out to Germany’s Lukas Resch, two years his senior, 21-18 in the deciding game. Last year was a transitioning year for Karpov, with four junior finals, winning two of them in Lithuania and Bulgaria. This year was due to be his breakout year at senior level, speaking about being dubbed one of the biggest talents in men’s singles, Karpov says. 

- I see myself in the near future as a professional athlete who will dedicate most of the time to his favourite sport, making progress step by step and moving towards great goals.

Read: Piek: We need to take good care of the talents we have

Words and attitude

In 2020, Karpov stepped up to the senior European circuit and produced some positive results, namely defeating Ireland’s Joshua Magee at the European Men’s and Women’s Team Championships and pushing Jan Ø Jorgensen all the way in the first game of their encounter. Evaluating these early steps, Karpov thinks about what he needs to improve on in the next year to have better chances of winning such matches. 

- To have more chances for the victory I think that I need to grow physically and mentally in order to be stable during the game with more experienced badminton players.

Following the match, Jørgensen sang the young Russian’s praises. Upon hearing this, Karpov reacted by saying. 

- Jan Ø Jørgensen is one of my favourite players. His words and attitude are really important for me and it makes me believe in myself and move forward. 

Interestingly, something that is rarely seen in modern badminton, Karpov still plays men’s doubles on the circuit alongside his singles. Explaining this move, he says. 

- Sometimes I play men’s doubles in some competitions because I like getting new experiences and it makes me be an all-round sportsman.