Krishna and Pridhvi enter semifinal

CHENNAI, JULY 4. Atlast there was some sanity in the proceedings on Tuesday when the semifinal round was reached in most events in the Krishna Khaitan memorial all India junior badminton tournament being held at the Nehru indoor stadium.

But then for this to be reached there was much sacrifice both by the players and the officials for the Monday schedule went right upto daybreak today. ``We did not have even a wink of sleep'', said an official and this should also be true of most players.

Commendable can be the only term to describe the fortitude of the up and coming stars of tomorrow. Be that as it may, the strains had its impact as the contest tightened and a reflection was seen in the Under-19 semifinals, the show piece programme of the day since Doordarshan was telecasting them live on its sports channel.

The two semifinals in the boys section went in contrasting lines. While third seed S.D.S. Krishna of Air India made short work of top seeded Anup Sridhar also of Air India in a remarkable show of agility and aggression, second seeded A. Pridhvi, another Air India player struggled in what was a 90 minute battle attrition before edging out Varun Kanwilkar of Maharashtra.

For sheer speed and variety, the Krishna-Anup match was the pick. The lanky Anup, a trainee at BPL Academy in Bangalore had a tiring quarterfinal almost at dawn today and looked leaden-footed after a stage against Krishna.

In the girls section, G. Jwala, the half Indian half Chinese from Andhra Pradesh threw up an upset when she ousted the second seed Trupti Murugunde of Air India. Trupti was in her elements while winning the first game but the fourth seeded Jwala, once she regained the feather touch returns, had her rival faltering.

So close was the contest at one stage that both players even began disputing over the selection of shuttle. For all this however, Jwala breezed away in the final game. In the other, Parul Priyadarshini, the top seed and current national junior champion was in a spot of bother against the sprightly N. Fathima of Air India.

The Railway girl was down a game and survived a match point before wriggling out and scripting a win.

But perhaps the most engaging moments came in the Under-10 semifinal between two tiny lads, Arun of AP and Nikit Kanatkar of UP. The way they fought for each point, at times even going for full length dives, forgetting they were on wooden surface had many around cheering them. Arun won but really there should not have been a loser in this contest.

The results: Boys: Under-19: Semifinal: S.D.S. Krishna (AI) bt Anup Sridhar (AI) 15-12, 15-10; A. Pridhvi (AI) bt Varun Kanwilkar (Mah) 15-11, 4-15, 15-10; (quarterfinal): Anup Sridhar bt K. Srinivasan (AP) 11-15, 15-7, 15-13; S.D.S. Krishna bt Ajith Pathak (AI) 1-0 concd; Varun Kanwilkar (Mah) bt P.V. Sajith (Ker) 15-13, 15-12; A. Pridhvi bt Ramesh Naidu (AP) 15-7, 15-17, 15-5; (pre-quarter-final): Anup Sridhar bt Anirban Mukherjee (WB) 15-1, 15-10; K. Srinivasan bt Prasant Bhatare (MP) 15-6, 15-2; S.D.S. Krishna bt P. Sunil (AP) 15-10, 15-10; Ajith Pathak bt Joseph Chisi (Nag) 15-9, 14-17, 15-11; Varun Kanwilkar bt Gaurav Singh (AI) 15-11, 15-10; P.V. Sajith bt J. Santosh (TN) 15-12, 15-11; Ramesh Naidu bt Akshay Thakkar (Mah) 15-7, 15-1; A. Pridhvi bt Vinith Manuel (Ker) 15-2, 15-1.

Under-16: (Quarterfinal): Nishant Dravid (Mah) bt Vasu Pandey (UP) 15-6, 15-3; Rohan Castilino (Ktk) bt Md Zaved Halim (Asm) 15-2, 15-3; Bahiman Bora (Asm) bt Utsav Prakash (Ktk) 15-2, 15- 10; Ansuman Hazarika (Asm) bt Sagar Chopra (Mah) 6-15, 15-11, 15- 13.

Under-13: (Semifinal): Ajay Jayram (Mah) bt Yesh Wagh (Mah) 15-, 15-13; Jishnu Sanyal (WB) bt Suranjan Bora (Asm) 15-12, 15-1; (quarterfinal): Ajay Jayram bt Navin Kumar (AP) 15-3, 15-5; Yesh Wagh bt Sandeep Banerjee (WB) 3-15, 15-3, 15-13; Suranjan Bora bt Kamran Ahmed (UP) 15-6, 15-7; Jishnu Sanyal bt N. Surujan (AP) 15-3, 15-10.

Under-10:(Semifinal): N. Arun (AP) bt Nikit Kanatkar (UP) 17-16, 9-15, 15-8; Parin Chopra (Mah) bt Baskar Agarwal (UP) 15-10, 15- 7; (quarterfinal): Parin Chopra bt Pradeep Patil (Mah) 15-4, 15- 10; Baskar Agarwal bt Eswar Rao (AP) 15-5, 15-5; N. Arun bt Ashu Pandey (UP) 15-3, 15-0; Nikit Kanatkar bt Gunel Borah (Asm) 15-5, 15-3.

Girls: Under-19: (Semi final): G. Jwala (AP) bt Trupti Murugunde (AI) 3-11, 11-5, 11-2; Parul Priyadarshini (Rly) bt N. Fathima (AI) 7-11, 13-11, 11-5; (quarterfinal): Parul Priyadarshini bt Shalini Prakash (AI) 11-0, 11-8; Fatima bt Pooja Patil (Ktk) 11- 5,4-11, 11-7; Jwala bt B.N. Aswini (ktk) 2-11, 13-10, 11-0; Trupthi Murugunde bt Krishna Deka Raja (Asm) 11-2, 11-4.

Under-16: (Semifinal): M.V. Saritha (Ktk) bt Aditi Mutatkar (Mah) 11-4, 11-2; Krishna Deka Raja (Asm) bt Danya Nair (Mah) 11-4, 11- 5; (quarterfinal): Krishna Deka Raja bt Aparna Balan (Ker) 11-2, 11-3; Danya Nair bt Abantika Deka (Asm) 11-4, 11-6; Aditia Mutatkar bt Nikita Hurkudli 11-4, 11-2; M.V. Saritha bt Deepti S. Paranjape (Mah) 11-4, 11-1.

Under-10: (Quarterfinal): I.R.D. Shavari (AP) bt Krishna Kullippa (AP) 11-6, 11-1; Pallavi Agarwal (Har) bt K. Vidya (TN) 11-2, 11- 3; Swathi Kalkar (Mah) bt Surabi Sunil Kadam (Guj) 11-1, 11-1; Jansi James (AP) bt M. Neelima (AP) 11-4, 11-7.

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