The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Asian Satellite from today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 25, 2004

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Sport - Badminton

Asian Satellite from today

By V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD, OCT. 24. The eight-nation Asian Satellite badminton championship commencing at the Swarnandhra Pradesh indoor stadium (Gachibowli) tomorrow may be a continental affair. But by all means, it will not be an exaggeration to state that it might well be reduced to a virtual Indian Open!

The reason? The big guns from Asia such as Indonesia (which is fielding a second string side with only Jeffer Rosobin being a player of some repute), Malaysia (which is not even sending a team) and Korea (being conspicuous by its absence) haven't shown much interest in the championship.

Essentially, this will be a major tournament for the 2001 All-England champion, Pullela Gopi Chand, to make a critical analysis of where exactly he stands in the competitive circuit from which he has been away for close to one year due to injuries. Though he says that he is much fitter and in a better frame of mind, Gopi knows that it is not going to be easy to go out there and produce something special.

Incidentally, Gopi's last appearance in the National circuit was when he played only in the doubles in the senior Nationals here. "I am eagerly looking for real competition out there in the court," he said yesterday evening while his teammates were warming up for the event. Another major source of worry is the move of the Badminton Association of India (or is it the APBA?) to thrust the ace shuttler on the organisational front for this event. It was obvious that the champion player had very little time to practice.

By all means, it should be an Indian show and reigning National champion Chetan Anand should be one of the strong contenders for singles title with the never-say-die Abhinn Shyam Gupta always there to prick the bubble of overconfidence of a better-rated player. J.B.S. Vidhyadhar could create a major upset.

In the women's singles, Trupti Murugunde, B.R. Meenakshi, Krishna Deka Raja will be the stars to watch out from the host's side while the doubles combination of Shruthi Kurien and Gutta Jwala can have a field day if they play to their potential.

That the Indonesian coach Atik Vauhari himself was modest in confessing that they have come here to ensure some sort of exposure for the reserve bench should put things in the proper perspective. For Pakistan this edition should be a learning experience. The Pakistan manager Syed Naqimohasin said that its No.1 Wajid Ali was the main hope in singles but even he insisted that they should be more than happy to cross the first two rounds here.

Qualifiers (for main draw): Men's singles: Ritu Parna Kulkarni, B.V.S.K. Lingeswara Rao, Rohan Castelino, Anuj S. Gupta, Joy T. Antony and Mangrish Palekar; Doubles: Mitesh & Jose George, Vijay Deepsingh & M. Palekar, R. Kulkarni & Jibi Verghese, Joy T. Antony & Thomas Kurien.

Women's singles: Dhanya Nair and Cynthia Rodrigues.

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