The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Petroleum teams start favourites

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Petroleum teams start favourites

Principal Correspondent

Air India in the men’s section and AP in women’s have been seeded second

KOLKATA: Petroleum will seek to defend the title it has been winning continuously for the last 10 occasions in the 65th inter-State badminton championships of the zonal winners which gets underway here at the Karmabir Nabin Chandra Bordoloi Indoor Stadium on Monday.

In the men’s section, the defending champion has in its ranks the individual champion Arvind Bhat, former champion B. Chetan Anand and Anup Sridhar.

In the women’s section, World No. 6 and former National champion Saina Nehwal will be leading the charge. Adding strength to the side will be the likes of Trupti Murgunde and Aditi Mutatkar among others.

Air India in the men’s section and Andhra Pradesh in women’s have been seeded second in the absence of last year’s runner-up Railway (men) and Karnataka (women) who have failed to win the zonal rounds this time.

Andhra will be a tough challenger in the men’s section and will be depending on Gursai Dutt, B. Sai Praneet and B. Summet Reddy. In the women’s section, current National champion Sayali Gokhale will add strength to the Air India team while Andhra also has a strong side with Sikki Reddy and P.V Sindhu in the fray.

Host Assam, Delhi, Maharashtra, Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and Uttar Pradesh are the other sides in the men’s event while BSNL and Bengal are two sides replacing OFB and UP in the women’s section in the seven-team draw.

The main crowd-puller of the tournament Saina, has decided to opt out of the individual championship and will only participate in the team events, informed the organiser.

The individual main draw of the 74th senior National event will get underway from Wednesday.

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