PATNA: With Aparna Popat opting out of the senior National badminton championships being held at the Secretariat Sports Club here, it would be easy to say as to who would be the overwhelming favourite in the women's category.

No prizes for guessing it right — Saina Nehwal. However, this is not to infer that Saina, looking for her maiden women's singles title, will have it easy all the way.

There are quite a few contenders who have the potential and the ability to rise to the occasion. One of them is Trupti Murgunde. How Trupti plays, observers say, depends on her mood and on the given day.

Having won the second all-India ranking tournament at Jamshedpur, Trupti will have to back herself up if she wants to make an impact here. Aditi Mutatkar, with two all-India ranking titles under her belt, is another bright talent who can challenge Saina.

Men's category

Meanwhile, the men's category looks pretty open. Many expect defending champion Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand to figure in the final though it's too early to predict.

Among the younger lot, P. Kashyap, Ajay Jayaram, Rohan Castelino and Anand Pawar might create an upset or two. If at all a new champion emerges from the above lot, it will provide a new direction to the sport.

In the inter-State/inter-zonal events, which begin on Monday, Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) comprising almost the entire Indian team, will most probably, triumph in both the men and women's sections.

The PSPB men will play lightweight Assam in the first round, which is the quarterfinal, while its women's counterpart will take on Delhi, without Saina, who will take it easy as she will reach here only on Monday morning.

A rejuvenated Air-India and a hungry Karnataka will hope to change the script in the men's category. Air-India has many young players including Jishnu Sanyal, Pawar, Sagar Chopda, Akshay Dewalkar, Shrujan Nandaluri, Utsav Mishra and Aditya Elango.

Change in fortunes

The Karnataka men's team is keen to change its fortunes. Having qualified for the Nationals after a gap of 28 years, it wants to make the best use of the opportunity. With Ajit Wijetillek, Jose George, Rohan, V. Amar, Mohit Kamath, Guru Prasad and Vineet Manuel in its ranks, Karnataka is looking for a spot nothing less than the final.

In the first round, Karnataka takes on BSNL, which has qualified for the Nationals for the first time.

For the first time, the Nationals will have a rally point system. After having received lot of flak for the way it conducted the mini National championships recently, the Bihar Badminton Association is confident of doing a good job.

The qualifiers:

Men: Singles: S.D.S. Krishna (AP), Ajay Mehrotra (U.P.), Nigel D'Sa (Mah), Aditya Elango (Air- India), Rohit More (Mah), Amit Khadgi (Rlys), Nikhil Kolhatkar (Mah), Amey Joshi (Rlys).

Doubles: Ram C. Vijay (Ker)/ Mayank Behl (Rlys), Sidharth Sabod/ K.S. Hersem (Ker), D.S.N. Raju/ S.D.S. Krishna (AP), Manmeet Singh/ Rajiv Bajaj (Del)/ K.R. Shivakumar/ S.S. Kannan (TN), G. Suresh Babu (AP)/ Radha Krishna (Rlys), Amey Joshi (Rlys)/ Nikhil Kohatkar (Mah), K. Tanshak/ B. Kiran Kumar (AP).

Women: Singles: Gayatri Kochak (Mah), Arundhuti Pantwane (Mah).

Doubles: Deepti Shalini/ Deepti Priyadarshani (AP), Radhika Reddy (AP)/ Gayatri Kochak (Mah).

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