Meenakshi to meet Aparna in final

By Kalyan Ashok

BANGALORE, AUG. 10. It will be an all-Indian women's singles final in the BPL Asian satellite badminton championship as the top two seeds - B.R. Meenakshi and Aparna Popat set up a title clash with contrasting wins at the Karnataka Badminton Association Stadium here on Friday.

It took Meenakshi all the guile and experience that she had at her command to stop the cool Thai teenager, and the third seed, Salakjit Polsana at 13-11,5-11,11-9 in 55 minutes while Aparna Popat took half time to put it across another Thai girl, Nucharin T at 11-5, 11-8.

Chetan Anand will take on Allan Tai of Malaysia in the men's final. The 21-year-old from Vijayawada, one of the brightest young stars on the Indian scene, prevailed over the talented southpaw, Nikhil Kanetkar at 15-9, 8-15, 15-6 in 65 minutes.

Tai, one of the aggressive players on view here, had a testing time against his Thai rival, Anupap Thirartsakul, who fought each and every point, before the 21-year old Malaysian junior champion prevailed at 17-14, 15-8.

The women's ties, often pushed back stage, took the spotlight as some high voltage game was on view in both the semifinals. Aparna was run close in both the games by an attacking Nucharin, but the Indian ace, virtually playing her first major championship, after her long lay off, found her game in the midstream and opened up with her blistering strokes to subdue her rival. In both the games, Nucharin, after a good start, which saw her keeping pace, lost the way and Aparna quickly went on to establish her ascendancy and take the tie.

``She played well. At this level, one has to be quick and play well in rallies. I was able to do that after a tentative start`` , said Aparna about her win.

Meenakshi, on the other hand, came back virtually from the `dead'. The 22-year-old top seed had to battle her way past a determined 17-year-old, who was in no way awe of her. The Thai youngster, had a good range of strokes and quite in contrast to her Indian rival, had the better temperament. But what she lacked was experience.

Polsana was unable to finish when riding high. This inability was fully exploited by Meenakshi, whose forte was speed. As the Thai dithered, nearing the finish line, the Indian girl, quickly weaved web around her, pushing her on the defensive, when it mattered most.

In the first game, Polsana, leading 10-7, made unforced errors to lose the advantage. Meenakshi made it 10-all and pushed the duel to extra points. Meenakshi had better luck as Polsana's half hearted smash was way off mark, a return went into the net and put another one out to drop the game (11-13).

But the Thai girl came back strongly in the second game and, with clinical precision, wrapped it up at 11-5. In the decider, she had everything going for her, leading 6-1, before a belligerent Meenakshi, forced to the corner after the change of ends, fought back like wounded tigress. She levelled at nine all, and turned on the heat at the crunch situation to take next two points. A visibly relieved Meenakshi, then threw her arms up in joy after the win.

The all-Indian semifinal clash between Chetan and Kanetkar was a defence oriented encounter as Chetan curbed Nikhil's stroke-play at the net and countered his rival's stinging half smashes.

Kanetkar did well to rally from 2-7 down to square up at 8-all in the first game, before Chetan pulled away to 15-9 win. In the second game, Kanetkar, running up a 7-0 lead, simply offered no quarters to Chetan.

But in the decider, it was Chetan who dictated the pace. With his rival lapsing into errors, Chetan playing with right judgment, flicked and dribbled with precision to outwit his rival.

It was not only Chetan's third win over Nikhil, but also his first satellite final of his career. Earlier in the quarterfinal round, Chetan and Nikhil had posted quick wins, but the second seed, Siddarth Jain crashed to defeat against the Thai contender, Anupap Thirartsakul in a stormy tie at 10-15, 11-15.

Jain, who has been nursing a knee problem for some time now, was hustled by the frisky Thai and the Indian was shown yellow card for dissent and raquet abuse on the match point by the referee by Ms. Vrushali Upadhaya.

The local lad, Arvind Bhat pulled all stops and played a gritty game against Tai and went down in three games at 14-17, 15-9, 11- 15. The women's singles ties in the last eight round were lopsided.

The results (Indians unless specified):

Men's singles (semifinals): Chetan Anand bt Nikhil Kanetkar 15-9, 8-15, 15-6; Allan Tai (Mas) bt Anupap Thirartsakul (Tha) 17-14, 15-8.

Men's singles (quarterfinals): Nikhil Kanetkar bt T. Jakrapan (Tha) 15-7, 15-5; Chetan Anand bt Mark Burgess (Eng) 15-11, 17- 16; Allan Tai (Mal) bt Arvind Bhat 17-14, 9-15, 15-11; Anupap Thiraratsakul (Tha) bt Siddarth Jain 15-10, 15-11.

Women's singles (semifinals): Aparna Popat bt Nucharin T. (Tha) 11-5, 11-8; B.R. Meenakshi bt Salakjit Polsana (Tha) 13-11, 5-11, 11-9.

Women's singles (quarterfinals): B.R. Meenakshi bt P.V.V. Lakshmi 11-4, 11-5; Salakjit Polsana (Tha) bt G. Jwala 15-5, 15-6; T. Nucharan (Tha) bt Shruti Kurien 11-7, 11- 1; Aparna Popat bt Pooja Patil 11-1, 11-0.

Women's doubles (final): Salakjit Polsana & Nucharin T. (Tha) bt B.R. Meenakshi & Oli Deka 15-4, 15-5.

Women's doubles (semifinals): Salakjit Polsana & T. Nucharin (Tha) bt G. Jwala & Shruti Kurien 13-15, 15-8, 15-3; B.R. Meenakshi & Oli Dekka bt Li Wing Mui & Siu Ching Man (Hkg) 17-14, 15-4.

Men's doubles (semifinals): Kitipon Kitkul & Sudket Prapakamol (Tha) bt Roopesh Kumar & Arvind Bhat 15-7, 15-5; Rosman Razak & Ng Kean Kok (Mal) bt Markose Bristow & Vijaydeep Singh 15-7, 15- 3.

Men's doubles (quarterfinals): Arvind Bhat & Roopesh Kumar bt Sanave Thomas & V. Diju 4-15, 15-11, 15- 9; Kitipon Kitikul & P. Sudket (Tha) bt Jaseel Ismail & Jason Xavier 15-3, 15-4; Markose Bristow & Vijaydeep Singh bt Lok Tin Tam & Wong Tsz Yin (Hkg) 15- 6, 15-6; Rosman Razak & Ng Kean Kok (Mal) bt Joy Thomas & Deepak Amarnath 15-12, 15-2.

Mixed doubles (semifinals): G. Jwala & Vidyadhar bt Su Ching Man & Lok Tin Tam (HK) 15-6, 15-11; B.R. Meenakshi & Sandesh Choutha bt Trupti Murgunde & Jaseel P.Ismail 15-13, 6-15, 15-9.

Mixed doubles (quarterfinals): B.R. Meenakshi & Sanjay Chowta bt V. Nitya & Youvaraj Kumar 15-1, 15- 3; Trupti Murgunde & Jaseel Ismail bt Lee Wing Mui & Wong Tsz Yin 15-13, 6-15, 15-11; G. Jwala & Vidyadhar bt Shruti Kurien & K. Sreenivasan 15-5, 16-17, 15-11; Siu Ching Man & Lok Tin Tam (HK) bt Bibari Basumatary & Bahniman Bora 15-4, 15-11.

Gopi Chand crashes out

Brunei, AUG. 10 India's Pullela Gopi Chand crashed out of the World Grand Prix badminton finals, beaten in straight sets 5-7, 4-7, 3- 7 in the quarterfinals by Indonesian Marleve Mainaky here on Friday.

The results: Marleve Mainaky bt Gopi Chand 5-7, 4-7, 3-7; Chen Hong bt Ong Ewe Hock 7-5, 7-2, 7-3; Xia Xuanze bt Peter Gade 7-3, 7-1, 7-0; Roslin Hashim bt Hendrawan 7-1, 5-7, 8-6, 7- 0.

- PTI.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Same old story for Indians
Next     : India keeps losing