The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Siddharth Jain beats Ajay Mehrotra

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Thursday, Jan 25, 2007
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Sport - Badminton

Siddharth Jain beats Ajay Mehrotra

K. Keerthivasan

PATNA: Once a contender of sorts, Siddharth Jain is enjoying his game now. From 1998 to 2000 when P. Gopi Chand's career was at its apogee, Siddharth found it nigh impossible to break the `Gopi' barrier, and ended up being second-best to the All-England champion.

Siddharth's best, though, is way behind him — what with three knee surgeries on the right leg taking its toll on his body. Playing with an uncluttered mind and a sort of happy-go-lucky attitude, the 31-year-old from Tamil Nadu, an ONGC officer and a member of the coaching panel of the Elite Camp in Hyderabad, overcame qualifier Ajay Mehrotra of Uttar Pradesh 21-9, 16-21, 21-10 to advance to the men's second round of the BSNL Senior National badminton championships at the Secretariat Sports Club here on Wednesday. He will now take on Guru Sai Dutt of Andhra Pradesh.

Easy for Elango

Air-India's Aditya Elango was not tested enough in his 21-8, 21-16 win over Ashutosh Pant of Uttaranchal in the men's first round. Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister, Bihar, inaugurated the Open Nationals.

Important results (First round): Men: Singles: Yogesh Chauhan (BSNL) bt Manish Gutpa (Cha) 21-7, 9-21, 21-16; Tarun Prakash (Bih) bt Senthil Velan (TN) 21-18, 18-21, 21-11; S.D.S. Krishna (AP) bt Prem Singh (Raj) 21-10, 21-15; Datul (HP) bt Mithun Das (Asm) 20-22, 21-17, 21-17; Rajiv Bajaj (Del) bt Arindam Mukherjee (WB) 21-17, 21-10; Govind Navlekar (Goa) bt Ananta Jena (Ori) 21-9, 21-11; Oscar Bansal (Cha) bt Prem Kumar (Jhar) 21-12, 11-21, 21-17; Rohit More (MAH) bt Dilip Gurang (ANP) 21-5, 21-10; Ajit Wijetilekk (Kar) bt Davinder Dhillon (Del) 21-19, 21-6; Aditya Elango (AI) bt Ashutosh Pant (Utr) 21-8, 21-16; Mayank Behl (Rly) bt Aman Kumar (Bih) 21-10, 21-5; Prasad Shetty (Mah) bt Y. Irudayaraj (Py) 21-15, 21-15; Sumit Dahiya (Har) bt Abhimanyu Singh (MP) 21-10, 21-12; Nigel D'Sa (Mah) bt Sachin Kumar (Jhar) 21-12, 21-19; Alwin Francis (Ker) bt Ajay Kumar (Bir) 21-13, 21-14; Anshuman Hazarika (Asm) bt Hardik Parikh (Guj) 21-15, 21-10; Prashant Bahatare (Mah) bt Harinder Singh (Pun) 21-15, 21-7; Siddharth Jain (TN) bt Ajay Mehrotra (UP) 21-9, 16-21, 21-10; Guru Sai Dutt (AP) bt Piyush (Har) 21-16, 21 -14; Mohit Kamat (Kar) bt Jatinder Singh (Goa) 21-7, 21-12; Prakrit Bhagwati (Asm) bt Vimal Vivek (Bhr) 21-14, 21-10; Anurag Sharma (UP) bt Joy T Antony (Ker) 21-17, 21-14; Amey Joshi (Rly) bt Himanshu Parmar (HP) 21-10, 21-12; Ashish Sharma (Cha) bt Parvinder Kumar (Bhr) 21-12, 21-10; Srujan Nandaluri (AI) bt Nikit Karnatak (Utr) 21-15, 21-4; K Anil Kumar (BSNL) bt Ankush Joshi (Raj) 21-8, 21-15; Sourav Kapur (Har) bt Sourabh Sharma (MP) 22-20, 14-21, 21-14; Amit Khadgi (Rly) bt K Tarun (AP) 16-21, 21-13, 21-16.

Women's singles: Chitralekha (Del) bt Miral George (Ker) 21-15, 21-15; Neha Verma (UP) bt Rahikha Singh (Raj) 21-13, 21-10; Amrita Mukherjee (WB) bt Manju (Cha) 21-15, 21-15; Ashwani Choudhary (AP) bt Gauri Chopra (Del) 21-19, 21-12; Manali Sinha (BSNL) bt M. Shruthi (Ker) 21-9, 21-17; Puneet Sharma (Pun) bt Pooja Pradeep (Bhr) 21-15; 14-21, 21-12; Arundhati Pantawane (Mah) bt Hosana Topno (Jar) 21-7, 21-9; Sumitra Pujari (BSNL) bt Sara Naqvi (UP) 18-21, 21-16, 21-14; Merit George (Ker) bt Vijitha Bhargava (MP) 19-21, 21-18, 21-18; J. Shruthi (AP) bt Tanmoyee Nandi (WB) 21-13, 21-10; Diksha (J&K) bt Sheetal (AIU) 21-17, 22-20; Sonal More (Mah) bt Purnika (Cha) 21-11, 21-9; Gayatri Kochak (Mah) bt S. Kavitha (PY) 21-8, 21-7; Poonam Tiwari (Utr) bt Monisha Vinayak (Kar) 21-15, 14-21, 21-16; Jyoti Swarupa (BSNL) bt Alka Kumari (Bhr) 21-8, 21-8.

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