The Hindu : Sania Nehwal favourite

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 12, 2003

Sport

Sport - Badminton

Sania Nehwal favourite

By Our Sports Reporter

KOZHIKODE OCT. 11. The smell of fresh paint greets you on entering the V.K. Krishna Menon Indoor Stadium. It's been given a facial, just in time for the SBT 17th National sub-junior badminton championship, which opens on Sunday.

A National event is returning to the city after a gap of ten years. And the organisers are determined to make it a memorable one. They seem to have done pretty well so far, getting some sponsors (the State Bank of Travancore being the main one), and making decent arrangements for accommodation to players. Many enthusiastic middle-aged men from the district association were there at the venue, eager to help the visiting players and press.

Of the eight competitions (singles and doubles in under-13 and under-16), the under-16 girls' singles seems to be the easiest to predict. It's difficult to see anyone stopping the talented Sania Nehwal. The 13-year-old from Andhra, who won all the four titles in the last edition of the tournament, has been making rapid strides on the badminton court and is considered one of India's biggest hopes in the game. Neha Pandit of Maharashtra, the second seed, is slated to meet her in the final.

The under-16 boys' event looks much more open. G.M. Nindish of Karnataka is the top seed, and he's in reasonable form too, having won the title at the All-Indian ranking tournament in Bangalore three weeks ago. In the final, he had beaten Maharashtra's Jishnu Sanyal, who is seeded second here. Ajay Jayaram of Maharashtra is seeded third and he's a strong contender. Sankar Gopan, the fifth seed, is host Kerala's best bet in the competition. Mandeep Singh of Chandigarh and Akshay Devalkar of Maharashtra are two other names to watch out for in this section.

The fight for the title in the boys' under-13 singles could well be between Aditya Prakash of Karnataka, Raj Kumar of Punjab, Pratik Patel of Gujarat and Parin Chopda of Maharashtra. In the girls' under-13, I.R.D. Sravani from Andhra is the top seed, followed by Viashali Baria of Gujarat, Vinita Ghate of Maharashtra and Afda Taqvi of Karnataka.

Over 400 players will take part in the five-day meet, to be inaugurated by the Kerala Sports Minister K. Sudhakaran.

The seedings:

Boys Under-16: 1. G.M. Nindish (Kar), 2. Jishnu Sanyal (Mah), 3. Ajay Jayaram (Mah), 4. Mandeep Singh (Chd), 5. Sankar Gopan (Ker), 6. Chaitanya Naik (Mah), 7. Akshay Devalkar, 8. I.S. Naveen Kumar (AP).

Under-13: 1. Aditya Prakash (Kar), 2. Raj Kumar (Pun), 3. Pratik Patel (Guj), 4. Parin Chopda (Mah), 5. Ashish (Har), 6. Phaninda Pasare (Kar), 7. Ameya Merchant (Mah), 8. Nidhin Dahiya (Har).

Girls Under-13: 1. I.R.D. Sravani (AP), 2. Vaishali Baria (Guj), 3. Vinita Ghate (Mah), 4. Afda Taqvi (Kar), 5. Jancy James (AP), 6. Sruthi Sridhar (Kar), 7. P.C. Thulasi (Ker), 8. Mohor Mala Mukherjee (Ben).

Under-16: 1. Saina Nehwal (AP), 2. Neha Pandit (Mah), 3. Neha Rane (Mah), 4. Madhuri Vijay (Kar), 5. Anjali Kalita (Asm), 6. G.N. Nischita (Kar), 7. V. Jyothi Swarupa (AP), 8. Sonal More (Mah).

Qualifiers

The following players qualified on Saturday for the main singles draw.

Boys Under-16: J. Niranjan (TN), Amey Joshi (Mah), Ratikanta Saha and Sandeepan Banerji (Ben), Anish Reddy, L. Lokesh, R.M.V. Kran Tej and Gurusai Dutt (all AP).

Under-13: Nrupendra Singh (UP), Bhaskar Agarwal (Utt), V. Sree Keerthi, P. Naveen Kumar, K. Nandagopal, M. Prasanth, Ajay Kumar and V. Anvesh (all AP).

Girls Under-16: Jui Agarkar (Mah), Remya Teja (AP), Aswini Ponnappa, Pratheeksha Ramesh, Nithya Sosale, V. Ruth Misha and Monisha Vinayak (all Kar).

Under-13: Arathy and Daya Elsa Jacob (Ker), Shweta Kelkar (Mah), M. Sikki Reddy and G. Divya (AP).

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