The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Memorable outing for Saina Nehwal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 13, 2005

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Sport - Badminton

Memorable outing for Saina Nehwal

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Jishnu Sanyal and Saina Nehwal emerged the winners in the boys' and girls' sections of the Under-19 final in the Krishna Khaitan memorial all-India junior badminton tournament that concluded at the Nehru indoor stadium on Sunday.

While Jishnu, who comes from Maharashtra had to fight his own inconsistency and a stubborn rival P. Kashyap from AP, Saina had the title virtually on a platter thanks to the indifferent form of Aparna.

Saina and Aparna had earlier in the day picked the girls' under-19 doubles title. Saina, who recently joined Gopi Chand's academy in Hyderabad, had come up the qualifying phase in the Under-16 section and what is more won the singles title there too to make it a memorable treble.

Down for the best part in the first game, Jishnu, runner up last time, caught up at seven points and suddenly the smashes found the edges and the net dribbles caught Kashyap lunging. The swiftness with which he completed the first game it seemed he would wrap up the second too. Kashyap has a fine smash and good court movement but often found himself committing unforced errors. Still from 8-12 down as he caught up with Jishnu, a long drawn duel seemed on the cards. But just as he started so did it end, Jishnu polishing of with a flurry of strokes.

Soft spoken Sania, a 11th standard student but already a force in the women's level, did not play too many junior tournaments last year because of the crucial 10th standard exams. But that she was none the worse for it was evident from the moment she stepped on the court this time. At no stage was she tested as she relentlessly pursued her objective of making every match a winning one.

Needless to say, it was a special occasion for her in Chennai and wholly sharing the joyous moments were her parents.

There was a special moment for the host with Cuddalore's Vijay Anand and Coimbatore's Sharath Chandran combining to bag the Under-19 boys' doubles title. Vijay had earlier won the mixed doubles title in Aparna Balan's company, to make it a creditable double.

The Vice President, SDAT, W.I. Davaram was the chief guest and gave away the prizes.

Results: all final:

Boys: U-19: Jishnu Sanyal (Mah) bt P. Kashyap (AP) 15-11, 15-13; doubles: Vijay Anand and Sharath Chandran (TN) bt Jishnu Sanyal and Akshay Dewalker (Mah) 15-8, 15-5; U-16: Arun Nandaluri (AP) bt Oscar Bansal (Chd) 15-3, 15-12; Doubles: Tarun (AP) and Parin Chopra (Mah) bt Pratik A. Patel (Guj) and Anup Kiran (Kar) 15-11, 15-2.

U-13: Hirak Jhyothi Neiog (Asm) bt B. Sai Praneeth (AP) 15-10, 15-4; Doubles: Anurag Thakkar (MP) and Sai Praneet (AP) bt Boh Sharma and Pravn Chopra (Pun) 8-15, 15-6, 15-10. Mixed doubles: Vijay Anand (TN) and Aparna Balan (Ker) bt A. Priya and Sharath Chandran (TN) 15-7, 15-4.

Girls: U-19: Saina Nehwal (AP) bt Aparna Balan (Ker) 11-2, 11-5; Doubles: Aparna (Ker) and Saina Nehwal (AP) bt Abantika Deka and Rimi Hazarika (Asm) 15-1, 15-5; U-16: Saina Nehwal (AP) bt Arundati Patwane (Mah) 11-1, 11-7; Doubles: Aswini Ponnappa and Nitya Sosale (Kar) bt Adfa Taquz and Yashica Poonacha (Kar) 15-10, 15-9.

U-13: N. Sikki Reddy (AP) bt Tannya Ravi (Kar) 11-5, 11-4; Doubles: Priyanka and Lavanya (AP) bt Sikki Reddy (AP) and Sailee (Mah) 15-13, 15-5.

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