The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Anup, Saina start favourite

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 03, 2008
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Badminton

Anup, Saina start favourite

NEW DELHI: Anup Sridhar will open his campaign against qualifier Sumit Dahiya in the all-India Rs.900,000 Pramod Mahajan memorial badminton tournament at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here on Thursday.

The World Championship quarterfinalist, Anup, troubled by a heel injury recently, will be checking his match fitness in the tournament. It is an important season, not just for Anup, and everyone would be keen to get off to a good start for the year.

With the cream of players assembled for the tournament, that will also serve as a good platform to gauge the form and fitness of the players before the selection of the national teams for the Thomas and Uber Cup competitions, there should be a lot of lively action over the next four days.

Richest event

The fact that it would be the richest prize money badminton event in the country, offering an equal winner’s cheque of Rs.110,000 for the men and women, should make the competition that much more intense.

Of course, Saina Nehwal, given a bye in the first round along with seven others in a draw of 32, should be a hot favourite in the women’s event.

The results (qualifying event):

Men’s singles (fourth and final round): Manish Rawat (Rly) bt K. R. Sivakumar (TN) 21-10, 21-9; N. N. Vinayak (AP) bt B. Kiran Kumar (AP) 21-12, 21-7; SAurav Kapoor (Har) bt Arindam Mukherjee (WB) 21-13, 21-11; Hemant Duggal (Rly) bt Jibi Verghese (Cg) 21-16, 21-18; Mohit Kamat (Kar) bt Aditya Elango (AI) 13-21, 21-6, 21-11; Arup Baidya (Rly) bt Joseph Sumi (Nag) 21-9, 21-9; Srujan Nandaluri (AI) bt Anurag Sharma (UP) 21-18, 21-12; Sumit Dahiya (Har) bt Ratikanta Saha (WB) 21-14, 21-10.

Women’s singles (fourth and final round): Neha Pandit (AI) bt Sheetal (Utr) 21-14, 21-5; Parssa Naqvi (Rly) bt Bibari Basumatari (Asm) 21-17, 21-17; N. Sikki Reddy (AP) bt Anjali Kalita (Asm) 11-21, 21-15, 21-10; Manali Sinha (Asm) bt P. Jyotsna (AP) 21-13, 21-18.

Men’s doubles (fourth and final round): Jibi Verghese (Cg) and R. C. Vijay (Ker) bt Manish Kumar Gupta and Venkat Gaurav (Cg) 21-14, 20-22, 21-16; Mohit Kamat and Venkatesh Prasad (Kar) bt Anirban Chetia and J. J. Hattibaruah (Asm) 19-21, 21-18, 21-18; Uday Bhasker and N. N. Vinayak (AP) bt Himanshu Kharbanda and Harjit Singh (Del) 21-16, 21-11; Sachin Ratti and Arup Baidya (Rly) bt Manish Rawat (Rly) and Rajib Goswami (Asm) 21-8, 21-17.

Women’s doubels (third and final round): Parssa Naqvi and M. Shruti (Rly) bt Gayatri Kochak (Mah) and Chitralekha (Rly) 22-24, 21-15, 21-13; Rimi Hazarika and Anjali Kalita (Asm) bt N. Sikki Reddy and P. Jyotsna (AP) 25-23, 21-14. — Special Correspondent

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

Sport