The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Not much hope for the Indian squad

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 07, 2005

Sport

Sport - Badminton

Not much hope for the Indian squad

V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD: : The main draw of the Indian Oil senior Asian badminton championship for men and women commencing at the Gachibowli indoor stadium here on Wednesday wears a depleted look as most of the Asian giants have preferred to send the second string players.

The most notable absentee is reigning World and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat.

The fact that even in this weak field there are only two Indians who have been seeded — Arvind Bhat and Abhinn Shyam Gupta — in men's section and Aparna Popat in women's category — may well be an indication of where the Indian shuttlers stand in the international circuit.

Hyderabad's Chetan Anand, fresh from his Sri Lanka Satellite championship victory, and Abhinn Shyam Gupta continue to be the main hopes.

The focus will certainly be on the young Indian talent like Saina Nehawal, Krishna Deka Raja, Aparna Balan, Trupti Murgunde in girls' section and Sagar Chopra, Aditi Pawar, in boys' category.

Aparna cautious

Aparna Popat, the world No.34, sounded cautious saying her first target was to improve her previous best pre-quarterfinal appearance in the last ABC championship.

"I am confident. The draw looks pretty okay. Let us see how things shape up," she said.

Vimal Kumar, the Indian coach feels that Thai Boonsak Ponsana, Athens Olympics silver medallist, could well be the dark horse given his rich repertoire of strokes and great retrieving ability. The championship with a prize money of $1,25,000 includes singles and doubles in men's and women's section besides mixed doubles.

The seedings (world rankings in brackets):

Men: 1. Ng Wei (Hong Kong, No. 9), 2. Kuan Beng Hong (Malaysia, No. 11), 3.Lee Hyun II (Korea, No.12), 4. Boonsak Ponsana (Thai, No.14) and Ayob Sairul Amar (Malaysia, No.16).

Women: 1.Wang Chen (Hong Kong, No.4), 2. Hirose Eriko (Japan, No.8), 3. Mori Kaori (Japan, No.9), 4. Yonekura Kanako (Japan, No.10), 5.Salakjit Ponsana (Thailand, No.13).

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport