Siddharth Jain wins French Open

BANGALORE, MARCH 20. India's Siddharth Jain clinched the men's singles title in the French Open badminton championship which concluded at Paris on Sunday. Siddharth, who occupies the 64th slot in World rankings, shrugged aside Poland's Jacek Niedzwiecki in the final with a 17-14, 15-6 victory.

Sunday's triumph in the French capital ushered in Siddharth's maiden international title. Last year, he had come close to clinching an International title but had succumbed to Gopi Chand in the final hurdle of the Scottish Open.

Enroute to his first international title, Siddharth snuffed aside the challenges thrown by Slovakia's Pavel Mecar (15-0, 15-2), Germany's Mike Joppien (15-8, 15-3), Poland's Wacha Przemyslaw (15-9, 9-15, 15-5) and Germany's Jens Roch (15-7, 15- 6).

While Siddharth basked in victory's resplendent hues, the other Indian players got struck to the sidelines. Nikhil Kanetkar suffered a 15-5, 7-15, 12-15 at the hands of Germany's Jens Roch in the quarterfinals.

The German had earlier doused Indian junior National champion Chetan Anand's hopes in the pre-quarterfinals by scoring a 15-5, 15-4 victory as Chetan's game wilted under pressure.

When India's No. 2 player, Abhinn Shyam Gupta, ranked 78 in the World, succumbed 6-15, 15-5, 13-15 to Finland's Pontus Jaanti in the quarterfinals, Siddharth was left with the onerous task of salvaging India's pride.

In the distaff side, Japan's Ida Takako sported the winner's smile while India's B.R. Meenakshi suffered a 3-11, 0-11 loss at the hands of China's Xu Li in the quarterfinals.

Earlier, Ida Takako had eased past India's Manjusha Kanwar with a 11-2, 11-2 victory in the second round. Manjusha had secured her second round berth with a facile 11-5, 11-0 victory over M.E. Pederson in the opening round.

In men's doubles, the National champions - Vijaydeep Singh and Markose Bristow - crashed out in the semifinals. The duo ran into Japan's Yizo Kubota and Takuya Katayama and sustained a 10-15, 7- 15 defeat.

Earlier, the Indian duo had stormed in to the semifinals with an upset 15-7, 15-13 quarterfinal victory over the top seeds, Bulgaria's Mihail Popov and Stojanov Svetaslov.

India suffered more casualties in the doubles second round with Jaseel P. Ismail and Vincent Lobo losing 15-5, 3-15, 6-15 to Germany's Boris Reichel and Sebastian Schmidt while Chetan Anand and Jose George suffered a 7-15, 13-15 defeat at the hands of Denmark's Anders Christiansen and Abel Tanghoy.

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