The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Chetan, Saina are top seeds

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 03, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Badminton

Chetan, Saina are top seeds

Special Correspondent

GUWAHATI: It looks like the India international challenge badminton championship, commencing at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium at Amingoan near here on Monday, is going to be a happy hunting ground for the Indians.

As many as 54 Indian entries, including some of the finest contemporary stars of Indian badminton, are in the fray along with entries from nine foreign countries. Excepting Malaysia, Italy, Japan and Indonesia, the bulk of the entries have come from the SAF countries. The list was reduced to 10 after Afghanistan pulled out of the tournament.

Two Indians B. Chetan Anand (men) and Saina Nehwal (women) were given top billing for the three-day championship, which offers a prize money of $15,000.

Anand, the second ranked Indian as per the BAI list after Anup Sridhar, is set to meet eighth-seeded Malaysian Li Qun Chong in the round of eight if things go as per the seedings. Fourth seed Pawar and the sixth seed Sri Lankan Dinuka Karunaratne are in his half. Highly-rated Malaysian third seed Wei Feng Chong will have to overcome the seventh-seeded Indian Nikhil Kanetkar in the quarterfinals while P. Kashyap is clubbed with second-seeded Italian Klaus Raffeiner in the bottom most quarter.

The seedings: Men: singles: 1. Chetan Anand (Ind), 2. Klaus Raffeiner (Italy), 3. Wei Feng Chong (Mas), 4. Anand Pawar (Ind), 5. P. Kashyap (Ind), 6. Dinuka Karunaratne (Sri), 7. Nikhil Kanetkar and 8. Li Qun Chong (Mas). Doubles: 1. Sanave Thomas & Rupesh Kumar (Ind) and 2. Diluka and Dinuka. Karunaratne (Sri). Women: singles: Saina Nehwal (Ind), 2. Kanako Yonekura (Jpn), 3. Trupti Murgunde (Ind) and 4. Aditi Mutatkar (Ind). Doubles: 1. Jwala Gutta & Shruti Kurian (Ind) and 2. Thilini Jayasinghe & Renu Chandrika Hettiarachchige (Sri). Mixed doubles: 1. Diluka Karunaratne & Renu Chandika (Sri) and 2. Rupesh Kumar & Aparna Balan (Ind).