The Hindu : Smooth sailing for seeded players

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 20, 2004

Sport

Sport - Badminton

Smooth sailing for seeded players

By Abhijit Sen Gupta

An acrobatic Abhinn Shyam Gupta in action. — Photo: K. Gajendran

HYDERABAD, JAN. 19. Most of the seeded players had an easy entry into the third round of the Indian Oil sponsored 68th Senior National badminton championship at the KVBR indoor stadium here today. Top seed Chetan Anand, second seed Abhinn Shyam Gupta, both from Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), third seed Sachin Ratti (Railways) and fourth seed J.B.S. Vidyadhar (PSPB) won their matches with ease.

Reigning National champion Abhinn Shyam Gupta who had defeated Chetan Anand in last years's National championship at Guwahati is a player renowned for his sound defensive technique. But he showed glimpses of his ability to change tactics and adopt a more aggressive style as he quickly demolished Puneet Bansal of Chattisgarh 15-1, 15-4.

Chetan Anand registered an easy win over West Bengal's Sanjay Das, while Sachin Ratti also had little difficulty in getting the better of his second round rival S.H. Manoj of Himachal Pradesh.

Local lad J.B.S. Vidyadhar, now playing for PSPB, is rated by experts as a player with tremendous potential. He too showed glimpses of his talent as he faced a spirited fighter in Ashish Sharma of Chandigarh. Vidyadhar pulled off some delectable forehand strokes and stinging smashes to overcome his rival after three hard-fought games.

Another player who gave the home crowd something to cheer about was 19-year-old T. Dinesh of AP who defeated 10th seeded Himanshu Thakkar of Railways 15-8, 14-17, 15-9.

The results:

Men's singles (second round): Chetan Anand (PSPB) bt Sanjay Das (WB) 15-1, 154; Manmeet Singh (Dli) bt Abhijeet Dutta (Asm) 15-2, 15-2; Rutuparna Kulkarni (Mah) bt B. Kiran Kumar (AP) 14-17, 15-13, 15-6; Utsav Prakash (Ktk) bt S.S. Kannan (TN) 10-15, 15-11 15-4; Hemant Duggal (Rly) bt Rohit (Har) 15-3, 15-9; K. Aneesh (Ker) bt Kanishka Das (Jhk) 15-5, 15-4;

K. Srinivasan (AP) bt Uttam Chobey (MP) 15-7, 15-9; Nishad Dravid (Mah) bt Abhieet Naimpally (BSB) 15-7, 15-6; J.B.S. Vidyadhar (PSPB) bt Ashish Shama (Chg) 16-17, 15-4, 15-4; Anut Gupta (Guj) bt Amit Kulkarni (MP) 15-2, 15-11; T. Dinesh (AP) bt Himanshu Thakkar (Rly) 15-8, 14-17, 15-9; Rohan Castellino (Ktk) bt Joy T. Antony (Ker) 15-12, 15-9; Utsav Mishra (UP) bt Harish Chandra (WB) 15-4, 15-1; Prashant Bahatre ((Mah) bt Pankaj Naik (Goa) 16-17, 15-11, 15-4; Thomas Kurien (PSPB) bt Rudra Kaushik (Dli) 15-1, 151; A. Prudhvi (AP) bt Nimesh Goel (Rly) 15-1, 15-1; Ravinder Singh (UP) bt C.M. Sashidhar (Rly) 15-12, 15-11; Sachin Ratti (PSPB) bt S.H. Manoj (HP) 15-1, 15-0; Abhinn Shyam Gupta (PSPB) bt Puneet Bansal (Cht) 15-1, 15-4; P. Kashyap (AP) bt Tanvir Gill (Dli) 15-11, 15-12.

Women's singles (first round): A. Divya (TN) bt Nima Lakshmi (Ker) 11-1, 4-11, 13-12; Prabinu Kabra (MP) bt Pooja Pradeep (Bhr) 11-2, 11-1; Monisha Vinayar (Ktk) bt H. Sarada Devi (Chg) 11-4, 7-11, 11-6; Aditi Mutatkar (Mah) bt Humara Banu (Gj) 11-4, 11-0; Lucy Mehta (Nag) bt Kavitha Dixit (LIC) 11-3, 11-5; Poonam Walimbe (Mah) bt Navitha Thakur (Pnb) 11-9, 11-9; Sarada Govardhini (AP) bt Uma Rani Palit (Jhk) 11-2, 11-0; Sonal More (Mah) bt Chitra Lekha (Dli) 11-7, 13-12; Miral George (Ker) bt Varsha Udayan (Bhr) 11-1, 11-0; Anjali Kalitha (Asm) bt Suman Rawat (Utr) 11-0, 11-0; Isha Sharma (Chg) bt Malovika Sarkhel (Jhk) 11-1, 11-1; Manju George (LIC) got w/o from Samarika (Jhk); Jyothi Swarupa (AP) bt Anees Kauser (TN) 11-4, 11-4; Gauri Choudhary (UP) got w/o from Prarthana (Nag); Rashmi Khedekar (MP) bt Jaspreet Kaur (Pnb) 11-1, 11-5; Aditi Biswas (Ktk) bt Roma Pandey (Chg) 11-0, 11-2; Ashwini Choudhary (AP) bt Debasree Dey (WB) 11-6, 11-4.

Doubles (first round): Sarada Devi/Isha Sharma (Chg) bt Kamini and Poonam Patial (HP) 15-2, 15-7; Deepthi Ranjan/Poonam Tiwari (Rly) bt Sampa Saha/Debasree Dey (WB) 15-5, 10-15, 15-8; Anith/Meenu (Har) bt Prabinu/Rashmi Khedekar (MP) 15-4, 15-3; B. Sri Lakshmi/Ashwani Choudhary (AP) bt Soumya Phade/Krithika (Raj) 15-3, 15-3; Dhanaya Nair/Aditi Mutatkar (Mah) bt Uma Rani/Malavika Sarkhel (Jhk) 15-1, 15-0; Krishna Deka/Bibari Basumatary (Asm) bt Navitha Thakur/Simit Kalra (Pnb) 15-2, 15-3; V. Jyothi Swarupa/P. Jtyotsna (AP) bt Pooja Pradeep/Varsha Upadhya (Bhr) 15-1, 15-3; Leena Dhapre/Manju George (LIC) bt Jyothi Sharma/Nisha Kalhotra (J & K) 15-0, 15-2; Nischita/Varsha Belawadi (Ktk) bt Chitralekha/Vanishha Agawal (Dli) 15-4, 15-4; Merit George/Nima Lakshmi (Ker) Richa Kapil/Gowri Choudhary (UP) 15-5, 15-3.

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