India qualifies for Thomas Cup finals

By Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI, FEB. 20. After a wait of 12 years, India will finally be part of the `Elite Eight' in the Thomas Cup finals at Kuala Lumpur in May.

The mission that looked possible all along was finally achieved with P. Gopi Chand leaving an indelible mark on the Asian preliminaries of the world's premier team championship in badminton on Sunday.

The 26-year-old Gopi proved a thorn in Thais' flesh as India grabbed the third and last available qualifying slot with a 3-1 victory before a small but highly vociferous crowd at the Indira Gandhi Stadium. Gopi won the crucial opening singles against an unpredictable Boonsak Polsana 6-15, 15-7, 15-7 in 75 mintues and returned in the company of Vincent Lobo to put the finishing touches to India's memorable triumph.

The 32nd ranked Gopi, thus, emulated Prakash Padukone's efforts at the same venue when India last grabbed the qualifying berth in 1988. Then too, India had made it at the expense of Thailand and travelled to Kuala Lumpur for the Cup finals.

In between Gopi's two winning appearances, Abhinn Shyam Gupta had restored India's lead with a 90-minute 15-7, 12- 15, 15-11 triumph over Anupap Thiraratsakakul after Thailand had made it 1- 1 by winning the first doubles.

``Today is the happiest day of the my life,'' declared a jubilant Mohammad Arif, the affable National coach with over 28 years of coaching experience, and continued, ``the boys had worked very hard and they richly deserve this success.'' Thereafter, it was a well-earned party time for the Indian contingent.

Not surprisingly, India's qualification eclipsed the triumphs of China in Thomas Cup and Korea in Uber Cup.

The Chinese men expectedly raced away to a 3-0 victory, winning the three singles, against the Koreans. The Uber Cup final had produced a gripping contest with the Korean women notching a 3-2 triumph over Japanese. When the teams had met in the second stage league, then too, Korea had registered a similar verdict.

In the evening, Indonesia joined Uber Cup qualifiers Korea and Japan with a hard-fought 3-1 victory over Hong Kong. The result not only helped Indonesia avoid the ignominy of not qualifying for the finals but also helped avenge the loss suffered in the second stage league.

Coming back to India's match, the host's fortunes depended much on Gopi's form on this day. Fortunately, Gopi, who felt ``a little dehydrated,'' grew stronger as the opening battle got longer.

A very high percentage of unforced errors had left Gopi exasperated in the first game, lasting just 20 minutes. Since his net-play, in particular, was inconsistent and he decided to go for more strokes. Even that did not help as his erroneous streak continued rather alarmingly until 4-6 in the second game. Till this point, Gopi was unable to figure out Polsana's `fake' from the forehand. ``It was difficult,'' said Gopi as he looked back at his most trying phase of the match, ``Polsana is very deceptive and I was not doing much right. I cut down my options but he was able to anticipate my moves well. But once I got a few rallies going in the second game, I think he cracked.''

Gopi's game stood resurrected once his strokes began to land. He rallied to lead 13-6 while denying the 48th-ranked Polsana a point on serve on seven occasions and closed the game in 23 minutes. In the decider, too, Gopi trailed 2-6 to leave his boisterous supporters and teammates a little worried. ``I remember, once I won the fourth point, I felt energised and much more comfortable.''

Thereafter, there was no looking back. Gopi jumped to a 8-6 lead, allowed Polsana one more point before winning seven points in 11 serving opportunities and put India ahead.

India had initially thought of fielding Bristow and Vijaydeep Singh in the first doubles but the team management had to replace the latter with Jaseel P. Ismail to meet the stipulation of the first pair being the higher rated one the second. Against the World No. 11 pair of Pramote Teerawiwata (the only survivor of the 1988 squad) and Tesana Panvisvas, the Indian pair surrendered 5-15, 7-15 in just 25 minutes.

It was left to Abhinn, preferred over Nikhil Kanetkar, to put India ahead for the second time. Against Anupap Thiraratsakul, Abhinn trailed 0-6 but stuck to his modus operandi of keeping the shuttle in play with high tosses and occasional drops to dominate the rest of the opening game. Much to the surprise of most present, the 94th-ranked Thai bounced back in the second and matched Abhinn stroke for stroke. Though the 85th- placed Abhinn rallied from 3-7 to lead 11-9, the fighting Thai lifted his game by a few notches and won five of the last seven points to level the match.

The decider looked like a cakewalk for Abhinn once he opened a 9- 0 lead. But Thiraratsakul kept fighting, played some delectable cross-court drops and reduced a 5-14 deficit to 11-14 after saving a match-point. While the Thai was catching up, tension ran high both in the Indian team's ranks as well as the spectators. But Abhinn did not lose his concentration and converted his second match-point.

With the lead regained, India looked to Gopi and Lobo to close the contest, lest Sidharth Jain should stand the pressure of playing the deciding rubber.

The 30th-ranked Kitipon Kitikul and Khunakorn Sudhisodhi had to contend with Gopi's soft strokes, which repeatedly upset their rhythm. Every time, Gopi took care of the back-court, with a vastly-talented Lobo covering the net, Indians gained points rapidly. It worked in the first and third games unlike the second, where Lobo tried to hit too hard and played at the pace which the Thai pair loved.

The Indian duo came back from 6-10 to take the first game 15-11 before being blown away in the second game. In a see- saw decider, India led 8-1 before the Thais closed the gap at 7- 9. India again moved up 13-7 but only to watch the margin being reduced to 12-13. India eventually took the game and match by converting the third tie-point.

lThe results: Thomas Cup (final): China beat Korea 3-0 (Chen Hong bt Lee Hyun Il 15-5, 15-5; Ji Xinpeng bt Park Tae Sang 15-10, 15- 6; Xia Xuanze bt Hwang Sun Ho 15-12, 15-12).

For third place: India beat Thailand 3-1 (P. Gopi Chand bt Boonsak Polsana 6-15, 15-7, 15-7; Jaseel P. Ismail/Markose Bristow lost to Pramote Teerawiwata/Tesana Panvisvas 5-15, 7-15; Abhinn Shyam Gupta bt Anupap Thiraratsakakul 15-7, 12-15, 15-11; Gopi/Vincent Lobo bt Kitipon Kitikul/Kunakorn Sudhisodhi 15-11, 2-15, 15-12).

Uber Cup (final): Korea beat Japan 3-2 (Kim Ji Hyun bt Yasuko Mizui 11-5, 11-3; Lee Kyung Won lost to Kanako Yonekura 3-11, 4- 11; Ra Kyung Min bt Miho Tanaka 11-3, 11- 4; Lee Hyo Jung/Yim Kyung Jin lost to Chikako Nakayama/Hiromi Yamada 5-15, 15-4, 15- 12; Ra Kyung Min/Chung Jae Hee bt Iwata Yoshiko/Haruko Matsuda 15-5, 15-6).

For third place: Indonesia beat Korea 3-1 (Lidya Djaelawijay bt Wang Ting Ling 9-11, 11-8, 11-5; Ellen Angelina lost to Wai Chee Koon 7-11, 11-4, 11-8; Yuli Marfuah bt Chen Wang 11-9, 11-8; Eliza Nathanael/Deyana Lomban bt Wai Chee Koon/Chan Mei Mei 15- 13, 15-8).

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