Sonora all-India tourney gets underway today

By Our Sports Reporter

KOZHIKODE, OCT. 4. Six love. When the umpire announced the score thus during the course of a badminton match, it did not quite mean the end of the world for the player at the receiving end in that particular game.

But from now on, at least for some while, a `six love' score would not just be a handsome lead; it will be the game point. The earlier best of three games of 15 points each, are being replaced by the best of five games of seven points each (for either sex).

And the focus of the Sonora all-India junior ranking prize-money tournament, which gets underway at the V.K. Krishna Menon Indoor Stadium here on Thursday, would be more on this experimental scoring system than the players. It is the first time the rule is being implemented in India.

And not everyone likes the idea much. ``It may be good from the spectators' point of view, but I think the players are going to find it difficult,'' says Anup Sridhar of Air India, the top seed in the junior boys' singles here. ``I would prefer the earlier rules when we had 45 points in a match, instead of the 35 now. This virtually rules out a comeback in a game.''

Rohan Castilino of Karnataka, the second seed in the sub-junior singles, also agrees with Anup. As does the top seed Nishad Dravid from Maharashtra, who feels the rules would work against players who take time to settle down.

The girls, however, do not seem to mind. They are going to get to play for more points now (they used to play the best of three games of 11 points each). Says Trupti Murgunde, the top seed in the junior girls' singles, ``I think it is an interesting change. Anyway, since the rules are going to be in force in the World junior championship, which will be held later this month in China, we will at least get used to it here.''

Trupti should have it easy on the court here, in the absence of the top two girls in the BAI ranking list, G. Jwala and Parul Priyadarshini. The junior boys' field also looks somewhat weakened, in the absence of S.D.S. Krishna, Himanshu Thakkar and A. Prithwi.

The tournament, which concludes on October 8, carries a prize money of 1.10 lakhs, has attracted about 200 entries, according to Mannil Vijayan, general convener. In four age-group categories (below 19, 16, 13 and 10) 17 titles are to be decided.

The singles seedings:

Junior boys: 1. Anup Sridhar (AI), 2. P.V. Sajith (Ker), 3. Ajeet Phatak (AI), 4. Gaurav Singh Siwach (AI).

Girls: 1. Trupti Murgunde (AI), 2. Pooja Patil (Kar), 3. Fathima N. Mohammed (AI), 4. Shalini Prakash (AI).

Sub-junior boys: 1. Nishad Dravid (Mah), 2. Rohan Castilino (Kar), 3. Utsav K. Prakash (Kar), 4. Sohan Gadgil (Mah).

Girls: 1. M.V. Saritha (Kar), 2. Aditi Mutatkar (Mah), 3. Deepti Paranjpe (Mah), 4. Nikitha Kurkudli (Mah).

Midget boys: 1. Ajay Jayaram (Mah) 2. Srijan Nandaluri (AP), 3. B.S. Phalgun (Kar), 4. Sankar Gopan (Ker).

Girls: 1. Aditi Mutatkar (Mah), 2. Madhuri Vijay (Kar), 3. Shipra Goshray (Mah), 4. Neha Pandit (Mah).

Mini boys: 1. Arun Nandaluri (AP), 2. Pratik Patel (Guj), 3. Vishnu Prasad (Ker), 4. Neeraj Rahman (Ker).

Girls: 1. Sruthi S. Kadam (Guj), 2. Pradnya Gadre (Mah).

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