Chetan Anand's march continues

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JAN. 6. Junior National champ Chetan Anand defeated India No.4 Siddharth Jain in the quarterfinal of the NSCI Senior Grand Prix all-India badminton tournament here today.

Anand won 15-8, 15-3 putting in yet another impressive performance over a top National player in his last three tournaments. Anand lost a close semifinal to India No.1 Gopi Chand in Lucknow, pushed India No.2 Abhin Shyam Gupta to three games in the final of the Natu memorial in Pune last week and now has reached the semifinals of this Rs.4 lakh prize money event beating Jain.

Tomorrow in the semifinal, the 19-year-old from Vijaywada will run up against India No.3 Nikhil Kanetkar for the second week in a row; Anand had saved a match point on his way to a three-game victory over Kanetkar in the semifinals of the V.V. Natu memorial event in Pune last weekend. In that match, Kanetkar conceded defeat halfway through the third game citing fatigue.

Seeded No.2 here, Kanetkar suffered the blues today but saved himself in time against No.8 Sushant Saxena winning a tense three-game quarterfinal, 12-15, 15-9, 15-12 in an hour and 20 minutes. It was an uphill struggle all the way for the left- hander as Saxena, always a dangerous floater, was able to trouble him with consistency and control.

To his credit, Kanetkar never gave up fighting back in every game: in the opener he trailed 5-14 but won eight points in a row and then let Saxena through to a 15-13 win with a series of poor tosses. In the second game he came back from 2-5 down to surge ahead and then let a 5-13 lead go in the decider to give Saxena an outside chance of winning. However at 11-13 a series of errors from the Uttar Pradesh player put Kanetkar through to the last four by the narrowest of margins.

The other two quarterfinals went to form, top seed Abhin Shyam Gupta beating No.6 Abhishek Bakshi in straight games to set up a meeting with No.4 Ajit Wijetilak. Wijetilak had his hands full against Anuj Gupta of Gujarat in the first game but came through fighting 15-8, 15-5. Gupta was on a hot streak having upset the fifth-seeded Sachin Ratti in the round of 16 in the morning, but could not match Wijetilak's resilience on court.

The results (seedings in prefix) quarterfinals:

Men's singles: 1-Abhin Shyam Gupta (PSCB) bt 6- Abhishek Bakshi (AI) 15-3, 15-9; 4-Ajit Wijetilak (PSCB) bt Anuj Gupta (Guj) 15- 8, 15-5; 7-Chetan Anand (AI) bt 3-Siddharth Jain (PSCB) 15-8, 15- 3; 2-Nikhil Kanetkar (PSCB) bt 8-Sushant Saxena (UP) 12-15, 15-9, 15-12.

Pre- quarterfinals:

Men's singles: 1-Abhin Shyam Gupta (PSCB) Hemant Duggal (Del) 15- 4, 15-5; 6-Abhishek Bakshi (AI) bt Thomas Kurien (Rly) 15-6, 15- 8; 4-Ajit Wijetilak (PSCB) bt Pravin Gehlawat (Del) 15-9, 15-3; Anuj Gupta (Guj) bt 5-Sachin Ratti (Rly) 15-7, 15-13; 7-Chetan Anand (AI)bt Devinder Dhillon (Del) 15-8, 15-4; 3-Siddharth Jain (PSCB) bt Amrish Shinde (Rly) 15-6, 15-3; 8- Sushant Saxena (UP) bt Srikant Bakshi (Rly) 15-0, 15-6; 2-Nikhil Kanetkar (PSCB) bt K A Anish (Ker) 15-3, 15-5.

Women's singles: 1-B.R.Meenakshi (Rly) bt Kurpa Telang (Mah) 7- 11, 11-5, 11-6; 3-C.H.Deepti (AP) bt Nupura Bhide (Mah) 13-10, 11-1; G.Jwala (AP) bt Oli Deka (Asm) 7-11, 11-6, 11-6.

Men's doubles: 1-Jaseel Ismail-Vincent Lobo (PSCB) bt Yogesh Padukone-Vivek Gautam (Mah) 15-5, 15-6; Bhushan Akut- Srikant Bakshi (Rly) bt Thomas Kurien (Ker)-Anuj Gupta (Guj) 15- 10, 15- 3; 3-Rajeev Bagga (Mah)-Vinod Kumar (Rly) bt V Diju-Sanve Thomas (Ker) 15-11, 11-15, 15-10; George Thomas (Ker)-Ajay Kanwar (Del) bt Jason Xavier-Deepak Amarnath (Ker) 15-12, 15-10; Amrish Shinde-Mayur Ghatnekar (Mah) bt Devinder Dhillon-Pravin Gehlawat (Del) 15-11, 15-13; 4-Ajit Vijetilak (PSCB)-Jose George (Ker) bt B Bohra (Asm)-Sanket Shetty (Mah) 15-13, 15-1; Mitesh Hazarnis-J B S Vidyadhar (Rly) bt K A Anish-J T Anthony (Ker) 15-11, 15-12; 2-Markose Bristow (PSCB)-Vijaydeep Singh (Rly) bt B G Kiran- Guruprasad (Kar) 15-9, 15-3.

Women's doubles: Ketaki Thakkar-Trupti Murgunde (AI) bt D.Shweta (AI)-Glory Xavier (Ker) 15-1, 15-3; B.R.Meenakshi (Rly)-Tanuja Begum (Ker) bt Pooja Patil-Aditi Biswas (Mah) 15-2, 15-4; Vinaya Shetty (Rly)-Nazneen Karimi (Mah) bt Nupura Bhide- Sim Sim Salaria (Mah) 15-13, 15-13; Manjusha Kanwar-Archana Deodhar (PSCB) bt Swati Moghe-Phalkan Nagori (Guj) 15-9, 15-7; Divya Ramesh (Kar)-Parul Priyadarshani (Rly)-Neha Gangoli (Mah)-G Narayan (AI) 15-7, 15-12.

Mixed doubles: J.B.S.Vidyadhar-G.Jwala (AP) bt 1-Vinod Kumar- B.R.Meenakshi (Rly) 15-7, 15-4; Jaseel Ismail-Manjusha Kanwar (PSCB) bt Mitesh Hazarnis (Rly)-Ketaki Thakkar (AI) 15-8, 15-12; Markose Bristow-Madhumita Bisht (Rly) bt B.Bora-Oli Deka (Asm) 15-9, 15-5; 2-Vincent Lobo-Archana Deodhar (PSCB) bt K. Vaswani- V.Shah (Mah) 15-7, 15-12.

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