Infineon tourney to adopt new format; Gopi, Aparna pull out

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, SEPT. 5. The inaugural edition of the Infineon Technologies- sponsored All-India open badminton championship, which gets underway at the Raheja-Karnataka Badminton Association Stadium here on Thursday, will usher in the new scoring format of the game, for the first time in the country.

The format - best of seven points a game and best of five games - had been tried out in a few junior ranking tournaments, but has been untested in the senior championships. The Badminton Association of India, in tune with the trend, is trying it out from this championship. The new system, followed on an experimental basis the world over, will stay in vogue till next June.

The Indian players are no strangers to the system as they have followed it in quite a few tournaments. Even the World Grand Prix finals, held in Brunei recently, was conducted on the new format. In fact, one of the first few tournaments to be played on the new system was the French Open championship, which was won by Abhinn Shyam Gupta.

The new format has its pros and cons. The playing time has been considerably reduced, unless the match goes the full distance. One who gets an early start and plays an attacking game stands a better chance. It is far more exciting than the best of 15-point format, where one has to wait for the climax. On the flip side, the players might not be able develop consistency, when there is more pressure to finish things off quickly. Again, how well a defensive player will cope with the situation is debatable. Abhinn, more adept in defence, won the French Open while Gopi Chand, the All England champion, had spoken of trying hard to come to grips with the new format.

But as Prakash Padukone pointed out, there will be an element of surprise in the new format. ``There could a new champion in every tournament,'' he said.

The championship, which carries a winner's purse of Rs. 1,00,000 for the men's champion and Rs. 50,000 for the women's winner, from its overall kitty of Rs. five lakhs, has something for everyone. Even the first round loser will end up getting Rs. 1,000 each. Though all the top men and women stars will be on view, Gopi Chand and Aparna Popat are giving the event a miss. The two National champions have expressed their inability to play in the tournament on medical grounds.

The organisers were in touch with Gopi Chand till last night to ascertain his availability, but Gopi, who had a medical opinion on his wrist injury, decided not to aggravate it. Gopi, after a check-up in New Delhi last evening, returned to Hyderabad and had a work out this morning to test his on-court fitness. He felt that his wrist hurts a bit while playing. He called Padukone this morning to convey his decision.

Aparna, on the other hand was very much in town, but she was down with viral infection. Manjusha Kanwar, who missed the Asian Satellite championship last month, will be back in action for the championship.

Leading the men's challenge will be the top seed, Abhinn Shyam Gupta. Other top players are Sachin Ratti, Siddarth Jain, Asian Satellite winner, Chetan Anand and Nikhil Kanetkar. Nikhil has been given a wild card in the main draw in the men's singles while Ajit Wijetilak and Jose George have been given a wild card in the men's doubles.

In the women's section, the National No. 2 B.R. Meenakshi starts as favourite with the main opposition likely to come from Manjusha, P.V.V. Lakshmi, G. Jwala and Divya Ramesh.

The organisers have done away with the mixed doubles event. On Thursday, the qualifying rounds would be completed in both the men's singles and doubles. The men's singles has received 107 entries though the main draw will have just 32. Eight qualifiers will make it to the main draw. The Chief Referee, Mr. Satish Bhatia, has his task cut out on the opening day. The qualifying round will be a best of three games affair.

With this event, the German firm, Infineon Technologies will be making its first foray into sports sponsorship. Infineon officials had a good piece of news for the badminton fans and players by informing that they will sponsor the event for the next two years.

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