How do you maintain a balance between aggression and defence in your sport?
See you have to judge yourself. If you have not been doing well in the last half or one hour than it is best to apply defensive tactics. You have to self retrospect about why you are not playing well. Basically your mind is not supporting your shot executions and at that time it is not correct to attack. In such a situation you tend to do wrong things. It is necessary under such circumstances to stop being a perfectionist because at that time nothing will favour you. So the best thing is to wait for the mind to cool down and get re-focused. And then once you start feeling better about your shots and get back your confidence, then you should go for attack.

Earlier this year, you displaced Geet Sethi to become the No 2 player in the country. How does it feel to upstage such a legend?

n As per the rankings I’m currently No 2 in the country after I won the Goa event. Even before, I had reach the national finals twice in 2003 (lost to Alok Kumar) and 2006 (lost to Devendra Joshi) but at that time there were no rankings and the position depended upon the performances in the nationals.

What does it take to become No 1?
The major thing is self belief and good homework. You need to spend a considerable amount of time on the table. Also you have to be physically very fit. Read action corrective books and lead a disciplined life.

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