The Hindu : Chetan Anand's maiden win tastes doubly sweet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 23, 2004

Sport

Sport - Badminton

Chetan Anand's maiden win tastes doubly sweet

By Abhijit Sen Gupta

Aparna Popat and Chetan Anand of PSPB, who won the women's and men's titles. - Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD, JAN. 22. In front of an adoring home crowd, Andhra lad Chetan Anand, representing Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, coasted to his maiden title in the IOC-sponsored 68th senior National badminton championship at the KVBR indoor stadium here today. He defeated Arvind Bhat, also of PSPB, 15-12, 15-8 in the final which lasted 38 minutes.

The women's final was surprisingly one-sided. It took defending champion Aparna Popat only 22 minutes to polish off her rival Trupti Murgunde of Maharashtra 11-0, 11-6. This was Aparna's seventh successive victory.

In the men's doubles final, the second-seeded pair of Markose Bristow and Rupesh Kumar defeated the third seeds Jaseel P. Ismail and J.B.S. Vidyadhar 15-5, 15-6.

"I am very pleased to win the National title here," said Chetan. "Last year, I had narrowly lost the final to Abhinn Shyam Gupta and that was a great disappointment to me and my coach (Bhaskar Babu). So, this victory on my home ground in front of my family and friends is a very special moment for me," said a visibly moved Chetan.

"I have been training very hard for about six weeks for this tournament and my efforts paid off. Arvind has never beaten me in our earlier matches but he played very well here. However, my smashes worked well and I was also helped by some errors Arvind made," Chetan said.

"In the second game, from 11-4, Arvind came up to 11-8 and I was under pressure but I managed to regain my concentration and I am happy that I could pull it off. I thank God for this victory," said the champion. He then walked into the stands and was warmly embraced by his family members and fans, many of whom were overcome by emotion.

Throughout the first game, Chetan stayed ahead of his rival. Arvind fought hard, but once Chetan took the lead from 2-2 there was no catching him. In the second game, Chetan shot ahead 4-0 before Arvind picked up a few points. At 6-3, Chetan again hit a purple patch and without losing serve took the score to 10-3.

At one stage, with Arvind trailing 4-11, Chetan had a brief lapse in concentration and allowed his opponent to reduce the margin to 8-11. This was a tense moment for Chetan and he fought back with determination. When he got the serve, Chetan left Arvind stranded at eight, going on to win the game and match.

The women's final saw Aparna outclassing Trupti in every department. Not only was Aparna faster while covering the court, she was stronger mentally too. A few errors Trupti made early in the first game seemed to weigh heavily on her mind and she never really got going.

In the second game, Aparna progressed to 4-0 even before Trupti could score her first point of the match. However, Trupti crept up to 4-5 as Aparna's near-perfect game slipped a bit and the defending champion was visibly irritated at herself for the mistakes. When Trupti lost serve at 6-8, Aparna seized the chance and finished off the match without losing serve again.

Markose-Rupesh win

The men's doubles also turned out to be lopsided with the defending champions, Markose and Rupesh, easily retaining the crown. Last year, the runners-up were Jaseel P. Ismail and Jaison Xavier, and this time too Jaseel had to be satisfied with the second spot despite a change in partner.

The results (all finals):

Men's singles: Chetan Anand (PSPB) bt Arvind Bhat (PSPB) 15-12, 15-8.

Women's singles: Aparna Popat (PSPB) bt Trupti Murgunde (Mah) 11-0, 11-6.

Men's doubles: Markose Bristow/Rupesh Kumar (PSPB) bt Jaseel P. Ismail/J.B.S. Vidyadhar (PSPB) 15-5, 15-6.

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