The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Smooth sailing for established players

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Thursday, Jan 24, 2008
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Sport - Badminton

Smooth sailing for established players

S.R. Suryanarayan

Rohit Ranaut upstages
Mayank Behal
Saina Nehwal breezes past
Uma Rani Palit

PANAJI: A hectic schedule, not unexpected, formed the feature of the opening day’s programme in the open events of the 72nd senior National badminton championship at the SAG indoor facility here on Wednesday.

As it happens in the early rounds, easy outing was the order for the established players. Top women’s seed Saina Nehwal breezed past Uma Rani Palit of Jharkhand in a second round match.

The National champion from the Petroleum Board hardly worked up sweat but the few points that Uma earned brought loud cheers. Uma lost but must have gone back happy having grabbed a few points from her famed rival.

Poor standards

The preliminary phase also brought to light the poor standards outside the known forces in the sport. Andaman and Nicobar for instance had two representatives in the men’s singles and their performance reflected the state of the game in the Union territory.

Their motto clearly was just participation, little more. The Andamans’ manager Abdul Waheed said there were better players back home but only those who came through the selection tournaments were brought here. “We still need organised coaching. There is talent but we needs coaches,” he said.

Two women players from Tamil Nadu — Hamsica and Anees Kowsar — lost in the second round. Hamsica fought hard against Jui Agaskar of Maharashtra and could have done better considering that she came close to grabbing a game.

However, it was a tall order for Anees who was up against Shruthi Kurien, known for her doubles’ prowess but equally strong in singles.

Late in the evening the men’s second round got under way. Top seed Anup Sridhar led the pack with a fluent display.

The first upset of the evening came when Rohit Ranaut of Delhi upstaged the 9-16 seed Mayank Behal of Punjab.

Tamil Nadu’s Siddarth Jain had a comfortable first round, but got past a fighting Ajith Wijetilake of Karnataka in the second round 21-10, 17-21, 21-18 in 56 minutes.

The results: Second round: Men: Anup Sridhar (PSPB) bt Ashutosh Pant (Utr) 21-6, 21-8; Rohit Ranaut (Del) bt Mayank Behal (Pun) 22-20, 21-9; Siddarth Jain (TN) bt Ajith Wijetilake (Kar) 21-10, 17-21, 21-18.

Women: Saina Nehwal (PSPB) bt Uma Rani Palit (Jha) 21-3, 21-8; Jwala Gutta (PSPB) bt Sweta Thakkar (Guj) 21-3, 21-8; Neha Pandit (AI) bt Uma Tamang (Nag) 21-6, 21-7; Amrita Mukherjee (WB) bt Arzoo Thakur (HP) 21-14, 21-19; Bibari Basumatari (Asm) bt P. Jyotsna (AP) 21-8, 21-11; Parssa Naqvi (Rly) bt Merit George (Ker) 21-12, 21-10; Mohita Sahdev (Del) bt Megha Merin Ninan (Ker) 21-5, 21-8; Jui Agaskar (Mah) bt R. Hamsica (TN) 21-9, 21-17; Dhanya Nair (Rly) bt Debashree De (WB) 21-12, 21-10; Aparna Balan (PSPB) bt Priyana Patel (Guj) 21-9, 21-9; Sampada Sahasrabudhe (Mah) bt Priyanka Arya (Del) 21-8, 21-4; V. Ruth Misha (Kar) bt Purnica (Chd) 21-5, 21-5; Parul Rawat (Rly) bt Dikshika Rawat (Utr) 21-13, 14-21, 21-9; Saloni Jain (U.P.) bt Ankita Shailesh (Bih) 21-10, 21-13; Mudra Dhinje (Mah) bt J. Shruthi (AP) 21-10, 21-11; Abantika Deka (Asm) bt Garima Yadav (MP) 21-11, 21-11; B.R. Meenakshi (PSPB) bt M. Shruthi (Rly) 21-9, 21-9; Sayali Gokhale (AI) bt Hosana Topna (Jha) 21-13, 21-6; Ashwini Ponappa (Kar) bt Juhi Dewangan (Chd) 21-5, 21-8; Poonam Walimbe (Mah) bt Meenakshi Nair (Del) 21-12, 22-20; Shruthi Kurien (PSPB) bt Anees Kowsar 21-10, 21-9; Aditi Mutatkar (PSPB) bt Monika (Chd) 21-2, 21-3; N. Sikki Reddy (AP) bt Vadehi Dave (Guj) 21-6, 21-10; Anita Ohlan (Rly) bt Sehar Chadha (Pun) 21-9, 21-4; Poonam Tiwari (Utr) bt Neha Verma (UP) 21-14, 21-12; Rimi Hazarika (Asm) bt Banali Raha (WB) 21-18, 23-21; Trupti Murgunde (PSPB) bt Diksha (J & K) 21-9, 21-4; Gayathri Vartak (Mah) bt Seshadari Sanyal (WB) 21-14, 21-9; Sonal More (Mah) bt P.C. Thulasi (Ker) 21-17, 21-15; Anjali Kalita (Asm) bt Sreelaxmi (AP) 21-4, 21-7.

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