India loses to Hong Kong

By Prakash Padukone

SEVILLE, SPAIN, MAY 30. India bowed out of the 7th Sudirman Cup being held here the San Pablo Stadium when it was defeated 4-1 by Hong Kong in its last group match. Hong Kong which thus remained unbeaten in this sub-group 3B, finished at the top of the table.

India which finished second in this group with two victories, against Wales and Austria, will now play for the 17th and 18th place against Russia on Thursday.

However, Hong Kong has not yet qualified for group 2 as it has to play against Canada which finished number one in sub-group 3A. The winner of this tie in the play off will earn the promotion to group 2 in the next edition of the Sudirman Cup to be played in Birmingham in May 2003.

In the previous edition of the Cup played in Copenhagen two years ago, India had topped group 3A before loosing to Ukraine 4-1 in the play off. Ukraine had thus been promoted to group 2 in this edition. As is the normal practice, the team finishing at the bottom of group 2 will be relegated to group 3 next year.

India today was beaten by a superior team. Hong Kong had the overall strength to outwit Indian and fully deserved its victory. It certainly is the hot favourite to move up the ladder.

In the first match on Wednesday morning India preferred to play Meenakshi in the ladies singles instead of Manjusha as the latter was fielded in the mixed doubles along with Chetan Anand. Manjusha had played reasonably well in her opening singles against Kelly Morgan of Wales but the coaches decided that it was better for Manjusha to concentrate on the mixed doubles.

Meenakshi was not her usual self against the much higher ranked Wang Chen of Hong Kong. Even before the Indian lass could settle down, Wang Chen had raced to an 8-1 lead. Meenakshi, aided by some uncharacteristic shots from her opponent and with some good dribbles at the net, was able to narrow down the lead to 6-8 before running into another bad patch.

She made three more unforced errors at this stage to concede the game 6-11. The problem with our players seems to be inconsistency. They play well in patches. This could be due to lack of confidence or lack of concentration. I don't see any other reason such inconsistency.

The story was the same in the next game as well. Even before Meenakshi realised what had happened, Wang Chen had raced to a 9- 0 lead. She won the game without conceding a point to complete the rout. The victory also enabled Hong Kong to go 1-0 up.

Hong Kong made a change in the men's singles by bringing in Tam Kai Chuen instead of the higher ranked Agus Hariyanto as Gopi Chand had beaten Agus on two earlier occasions in the recent past. But the ploy did not succeed as Gopi comprehensively beat the southpaw in two games 15-10, 15-5 to level the match score.

For a change Gopi started aggressively from the word go and was up 6-1 in a flash. Tam slowly but surely crawled back to level the score at 8-8-. But could not trouble the Indian any further as he lost the game 15-10.

Gopi was way ahead in the second establishing a good eight-point lead. He scored points at will and ran through the game 15-5.

Gopi is gradually getting into form which is a good sign. Of the three matches he has played so far in this tournament, his performance today was the most impressive. He looked confident from the word go and moved effortlessly. At no stage in the match did he seem to be in trouble and was totally in command.

Hong Kong once again took the lead when its mixed doubles pair of Njoto and Wai Chee Koon made short work of Chetan Anand and Manjusha Kanwar 15-9, 15-7. The unorthodox style of the Indians unsettled the Hong Kong pair in the initial stages. Both Chetan and Manjusha served exceptionally well in the first game which fetched them many points.

Our other doubles players, both men and women, should take cue from them and improve their low serves, for, this has been one of our traditional weaknesses in the past.

After loosing the first game, Manjusha was too erratic in the next and could not provide the support that Chetan needed. Ultimately the Hong Kong pair proved too strong for the Indians who went down fighting.

This loss virtually ruled out our chances of winning the tie as mixed doubles was our best bet besides trying to win the men's singles and men's doubles.

Unfortunately for the Indians, men's doubles figured last in the order of play where Gopi was brought in to partner Markose Bristow. The order of play is not fixed and is generally decided by the referee who has to ensure that players playing both singles and doubles get sufficient rest between matches. As Gopi was playing both singles and doubles, the referee ruled that his matches will be played second and fifth.

As expected the tie was over by the time it got to the last match as Hong Kong had already won the fourth match, the ladies doubles. Ling and Wang faced no major threat from the inexperienced Indian combination of Jwala and Shruti Kurian.

They won in two games to give Hong Kong an unassailable 3-1 lead.

In an inconsequential men's doubles, the Indian pair of Gopi and Markose Bristow after loosing the first game 13-15 to Ma Che Kong and Kwun Yuen Yau, conceded the match there by making the final score read 4-1 in favour of Hong Kong.

Positive developments

Despite the defeat there are some positive developments on this tour. The emergence of Jwala and Shruti Kurian in the ladies doubles and Chetan Anand in the mixed doubles is to be welcomed. It is only to be hoped that they will continue improving.

On the other hand the fact that Chetan has emerged as the best mixed doubles player from the lot does not speak highly of the other doubles players as he is in the team mainly on the strength of his singles. It is time doubles specialists took note of this fact.

PTI adds:

Indonesia, Korea win opening matches

Indonesia and Korea won their opening first division group matches, albeit in contrasting styles. While a confident Korea thrashed Sweden 5-0, Indonesia had it tough against England in a long drawn out encounter late on Tuesday.

The results in this mixed team event mean three-time champions China and Korea have made it to the last four from group 1A and they will play off later in the day to decide the group toppers.

In group 1B, Denmark and Indonesia have booked their semifinal berths and will be involved in a crucial tie, also late on Tuesday.

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