End of the road for Gopi Chand

By Prakash Padukone

SEVILLE, JUNE 8. The Indian challenge in the 12th World badminton championships came to an end when the only remaining player in the tournament, reigning all England champion Pullela Gopichand went down in straight games to Chen Hong of China in the first quarterfinals played at the San Pablo Stadium here.

This was the fourth meeting between these two players and the scores now stand tied at 2-2. The last time the two had met in the all England finals two months back, Gopi had won the battle. This time however, the Indian was not able to reproduce his earlier form and was beaten 10-15; 10-15. Chen Hong now runs into world no. 2 Peter Gade of Denmark in the semifinals to be played tomorrow. Incidentally, Gade happens to be the highest seed left in the tournament with the defeat of top-seed Roslin Hashim of Malaysia in the second round.

Gopi started the match on a confident note taking a 3- 0 lead in the opening game. He further extended it to 6-1 with a combination of attacking smashes and good net play. The Chinese was quick to recover and equaled the score at 6-6. And in the next few minutes he had established a 11-7 and 13-8 lead. Although Gopi managed to reduce the deficit to 10-13, he could not stop Chen from winning the game 15-10.

In the second game Chen Hong was always in the lead from the start and maintained it right through. Twice Gopi came close to equalising but did not succeed on both the occasions. It was also extremely difficult to concentrate as the stadium was filled with plenty of school children who were beating drums all the time and creating a ruckus throughout. Chen led 13-7 and then 14-8 in the 2nd game.

Gopi saved two match points and also scored two more points to inch ahead to 10-14. But he was called for a service fault at this stage when the Indian flicked the serve behind. Chen did not waste any more chances as he finished the match with a jump smash on his third match point to avenge his all England defeat.

Compared to the All England, Gopi looked a trifle slower on the court specially while recovering and was not able to focus as well as he had done the previous time. In addition he conceded many easy points which eased the pressure on Chen and made his job easier.

Notwithstanding today's defeat, I still feel that Gopi is the only player amongst the top few who has the capability of varying his game depending on the situation. Even though Peter Gade and Taufik play at a furious pace, they are unable to change their game if things are not going in their favour. This I feel will be a big plus point in favour of Gopi in the long run assuming of course that other aspects like speed, fitness, power etc. remain the same as they are now.

Hariyanto's dreams perish

The dreams of 24-year old giant killer Agus Hariyanto of making his first ever semifinal of a world championship were shattered by world no. 2 and the only European left in the men's singles Peter Gade of Denmark when he easily outclassed him 15-4, 15-8. The Hong Kong player was no match for the Dane who was a class apart. He was superior in all departments of the game and literally bulldozed his way into the semi finals.

The other semifinals will be an all Indonesian affair as both Taufik Hidayat and Hendrawan scored convincing wins over their opponents. While Taufik won against Lee Hyun II of Korea in three sets, Hendrawan was a surprise straight-games winner over 2000 all England champion Xia Xuanze of China. Even though Taufik played three games against the Korean, the deciding game was an easy affair as he won 15-5.

All-Chinese women's affair

The women's singles, on the other hand, will be an all-China affair as all their players brushed aside opposition in the quarterfinals. The semifinal line up will be: Gong Zhichao vs Gong Ruina; Zhang Ning vs Zhou Mi.

This tournament has certainly proved to be unlucky for the top- seeds in particular. Today it was the turn of the mixed doubles top-seeds Micheal Sogaard and Rikke Olsen of Denmark to go crashing out of the event as they were humbled in two games by the Korean Pair of Kim Dong Moon and Ra Kyung Min. The Danish pair had no clue to what was happening on the court as the Koreans totally dominated the match and won easily. They have thus become the fourth top-seeded player/pair to make their exit from the tourney. This only leaves the ladies doubles top seeds in the fray. It remains to be seen whether they will survive the day or not.

The Chinese seem to have had their say this time at least by eliminating their main rival early thereby paving the way for one amongst them to win the title. It is indeed remarkable that all the five Chinese girls made it to the last eight stage.

Camilla Martin ousted

This championship continues to be a graveyard for the seeded players as two more seeds fell by the wayside on an eventful Thursday .

Defending champion and current World No. 1 Camilla Martin of Denmark was the first to be ousted when she went down 6-11, 6-11 in the pre-quarterfinals to Chinese left hander Dai Yun.

Top seeds in the men's doubles, Jesper Larsen and Jens Eriksen of Denmark, were comprehensively beaten by former all England champions from Korea Yoo Yong Sung and Lee Dong Soo.

The Thai combination of Pramote and Tesana accounted for Flandi Limpele and Eng of Indonesia in the opening round and then Zhang Wei and Zhang Jun of China to enter the last 16 stage.

The fact that they beat both rivals in two games and that too comfortably shows that the Thai pair is in good nick. I feel that this pair has been highly underrated & its ranking does not truly reflect their real standing.

The other Korean pair Yoo and Lee also deserve a word of praise for the manner in which they have performed so far. They easily beat the top seeds from Denmark to enter the quarterfinals.

In other matches played in the evening Taufik Hidayat prevailed over Wong Choon Hann of Malaysia in three games while Hendrawan dealt a blow to the hopes of Tam Kai Chuen of Hong Kong. Xia Xuanze joined teammate Chen Hong in the last eight stage with a hard fought victory over Anders Boesen of Denmark in three games. Lee Hyun Li was the only Korean left in the fray in men's singles when he downed Kennenth Jonassen of Denmark in two games.

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