The Hindu : Sport : Chinese domination may continue

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Tuesday, Apr 01, 2008
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Chinese domination may continue

V.V. Subrahmanyam

India Open from today

Chunlai Bao, Xingfang Xie get pride of place
Indian men have a tough task on hand

HYDERABAD: Will the ‘Chinese Wall’ be breached in the $1,20,000 Sunrise-Yonex India Open badminton championship commencing at Gachibowli, here from Tuesday?

This is the logical query considering that the top three seeds in both men’s and women’s sections are from China and all have the potential to make their opponents look very ordinary on their day.

This tournament is being considered a huge opportunity for the host to book berths for the Beijing Olympics as it is one of the last three qualifying tournaments.

India’s best men’s singles player Anup Sridhar (World No. 24), who is assured of an Olympic berth provided Arvind Bhat doesn’t overtake him in rankings, has pulled out due to an ankle injury.

Except for Chetan Anand, once ranked No. 24, and Anand Pawar the others will run into tough customers very early in their campaign.

Little scope

Realistically, there seems to be little scope for outstanding results from the Indians unless the elegant Chetan comes up with a special performance in front of his home crowd.

Bhat (World No. 43) may have a possible second round clash with fourth seed Sung-Hwan Park of Korea.

“Due credit was not given to me even after winning the All England title against Lin Dan since he was not fully fit. So, I am determined to win here to prove that my victory was no flash in the pan,” the Korean said.

The women’s field also has the 23-year-old, third-seeded Lin Zhu, 2007 world champion, 20-year-old Lu Lan, winner of 2007 Denmark Super Series and the Chinese Open.

The seedings:

Singles: Men: 1. Chunlai Bao (Chn), 2. Jin Chen (Chn), 3. Yu Chen (Chn), 4. Sung Hwan Park (Kor), 5. Boonsak Ponsana (Thai), 6. Choong Hann Wong (Mas), 7. Shoji Sato (Jpn), 8. Tsuen Seng Lee (Mas).

Women: 1. Xingfang Xie (Chn), 2. Lan Lu (Chn), 3. Lin Zhu (Chn), 4. Huai Wen Xu (Ger), 5. Mew Choo Wang (Mas), 6. Mi Zhau (Hkg), 7. Pui Yin Yip (Hkg), 8. Emiko Hirose (Jpn).

Doubles: Men: 1. Jae Sung Jing / Yongdae Lee (Kor), 2. Candra Wijaya (Mas) / Tony Gunawan (USA), 3. Jaelin Lee / Jo Man Hwang (Kor), 4. Shuichi Sakamoto / Shintaro Keda (Jpn), 5. Zhendong Guo / Zhengbo Xie (Chn), 6. Tadashi Ohtsuka / Keita Masuda (Jpn), 7. Hendra Arida Gunawan / Joko Riyadi (Ina), 8. Albertus Susanto Njoto / Yohan Hadikusumo Wiranata (Hkg).

Women: 1. Yun Chin Chien / Wen Hsing Cheng (Chn), 2. Miyuki Maeda / Satoko Suetsuna (Jpn), 3. Yanmei Juang / Yujia Li (Singapore), 4. Aki Akao / Tomomi Matsuda (Jpn).

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