The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Dravid, Tanish end Malaysian challenge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 11, 2004

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Sport - Badminton

Dravid, Tanish end Malaysian challenge

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW, DEC. 10. With the big names enjoying first-round byes and waiting for the competition to warm up, the best among the rest used the opening day of the $20,000 Syed Modi International badminton championship to enjoy their moments of triumph at the K. D. Singh `Babu' Stadium hall here.

Former National junior champion Nishad Dravid and little-known K. Tanish scored three-game victories to end Malaysia's challenge in the men's singles. The Malaysians joined those from Nepal and Bangladesh who also made early exits.

Dravid took the initiative against Tan Zhao Rong and jumped to a 10-5 lead before closing the game at six. In his attempt to finish the match, Dravid committed too many unforced errors in the second game and surrendered it tamely. In the decider, the Malaysian was in the match till 3-4 before Dravid opened up a 9-3 margin.

Deepti, Shruti survive

Ladies rarely get `prime time' slots in a major tournament and Friday was one such day. Those who made the most of it included C. H. Deepti and Shruti Kurien who emerged stronger from three-game battles in the evening.

Deepti defeated her namesake Deepti Priyadarshini after saving two match points in the second game. Down 4-6, Priyadarshini went on to take the first game without allowing her rival a single point on serve.

In the second, Priyadarshini tossed away a 10-4 advantage to let Deepti draw level at 10 and 12. Deepti went on to clinch that game and opened up a 4-0 lead in the decider. Thereafter she never looked back.

The results (first round, Indians unless stated):

Men's singles: Sumit Dahiya bt Mohammad Parash (Ban) 15-7, 15-7; Rutuparna Kulkarni bt Rakesh Gaur 15-2, 15-2; Utsav Prakash bt Pashupati Paneru (Nep) 15-7, 15-7; Rohan Castelino bt Mokter Hossain (Ban) 15-2, 15-10; K. Tanish bt Koh Jack Sian Nguan (Mal) 13-15, 15-10, 15-6; Sachin Ratti bt P. Kashyap 15-7, 15-9; C. M. Shashidhar bt Enayetullah Khan (Ban) 15-5, 15-0; Joy T. Anthony bt Balaram Thapa (Nep) 15-10, 15-2; Nishad Dravid bt Tan Zhao Rong (Mal) 15-6, 3-15, 15-8; Mangrish Palekar bt Kabir Russel (Ban) 15-7, 15-1.

Women's singles: T. Sowmya bt Sara Devi Tamang (Nep) 11-5, 11-5; Parsha Naqvi bt Sharada Govardhani 11-9, 11-9; Dhanya Nair bt Neha Makwana 11-4, 11-9; Anita Raj Kaur (Mal) bt Oli Deka 11-4, 11-2; C. H. Deepti bt Deepti Priyadarshini 6-11, 13-12, 11-5; Pia Zubadiah (Indonesia) bt Deepti Ranjan 11-8, 11-2; Shruti Kurian bt Barnali Raha 11-2, 10-13, 11-5; B. R. Meenakshi bt B. Srilakshmi 11-4, 11-2; Aditi Biswas w.o. Ayesha Ansari; Abantika Deka bt Sumina Shreshtha 11-1, 11-4; Trupti Murgunde bt Bibari Basumatary 11-2, 11-4; Yuan Kartika (Indonesia) bt Aparna Balan 13-11, 11-3; G. Jwala bt Gayatri Mendiratta 11-3, 11-6; Krishna Dekaraja bt Amrita Mukherjee 11-2, 11-0.

Men's doubles: Nallusamy Venkatesh-Malik Jalal bt Kunal Makwana-Vicky Jaiswal 15-7, 15-8; Jayan James-T. Dinesh bt Kabir Russel- Mohammad Parash (Ban) 15-8, 6-15, 15-11; K. Tanish-N. N. Vinayak bt Utsav Mishra-Sushant Saxena 7-15, 15-8, 15-13; Mayur Ghatnekar-Varun Khanvilkar bt Mokter Hossain-Enayetullah Khan (Ban) 15-5, 15-11; Chetan Anand-P. Saratchandra bt Vijaydeep Singh-Mangrish Palekar 15-6, 17-16.

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