Sport
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Badminton
Ratti leads Railways' charge; PSCB in finals
By Rakesh Rao
Sachin Ratti, who was the star of the day for Railways, in action against Uttar Pradesh's Utsav Mishra in the team quarterfinals in the National badminton championships at Lucknow on Saturday. - Photo: Sandeep Saxena
LUCKNOW, JAN. 5. Sachin Ratti carried Railways to a fighting victory over National Games champion Uttar Pradesh before showing the way for the former champion to a 2-0 lead in the semifinal against Kerala in the inter-State phase of the National badminton championship at the K.D. Singh `Babu' Stadium here on Saturday.
In what was a grudge battle of sorts, Railways worked its way past U.P. to a 3-1 verdict. Later, Railways took two singles matches off last year's runner-up Kerala. The doubles match was in progress at the time of going to press. Kerala, on the strength of its two doubles combination, had overcame Banks' Sports Board 3-2 in the quarterfinals.
Holder Petroleum Sports Control Board, with Chetan Anand and Abhinn Shyam Gupta winning their singles, wasted no time in dismissing Nagaland and Assam to reach the final without dropping a game.
Railways' victory over U.P. was not unexpected. Still, there were moments when the host did look intimidating. However, U.P. never looked even remotely close to repeating its memorable victory over Railways on way to the title in 1994 when the city last hosted the championship.
Ratti overcame some starting trouble to get past Utsav Mishra in four games. Though Utsav raced away with the first game, he never really looked like lasting the distance. He ran out of steam by the fourth game. Though Utsav held a game-point at 6-4, it was Ratti who remained in control. Once the serve changed hands, Ratti reeled off the next four points.
Ratti soon returned on court with Vijaydeep Singh for the doubles after U.P.'s Ravinder Singh had dumped J.B.S. Vidyadhar losing just three points in 21 minutes. The Ratti-Vijaydeep combination proved better than Ravinder Singh and Sushant Saxena in four games.
Ironic as it may sound, Saxena, one of the heroes of the 1994 triumph, proved a let down for UP. He was the weak-link in the doubles and to make matters worse, suffered a fall during the match which restricted his movements and raised the percentage of errors. When Saxena returned for the singles against Arup Baidya, he had his moments but the end was rather disappointing. He blew a 6-3 lead in the second game but went on to wrap up the third at love. But just after raising visions of a fine comeback, Saxena surrendered the fourth game at love and with it, the match.
In the women's section, PSCB made it as easily as expected. With the services of National champion Aparna Popat as well as the National doubles champions G. Jwala and Shruti Kurien, PSCB went about its task in a business-like manner and swept aside Bengal and Assam for a place in the final.
The results (team championship):
Men's semifinals: PSCB beat Gujarat 3-0 (Chetan Anand bt Major Singh 7-0, 7-1, 8-6; Abhinn Shyam Gupta bt Anuj Gupta 7-3, 7-5, 7-3; Jaseel P. Ismail/Nikhil Kanetkar bt Anuj Gupta/Sameer Abbasi 7-2, 8-6, 7-1).
Railways leads Kerala 2-0 (Sachin Ratti bt Joy T. Anthony 7-2, 3-7, 7-1, 7-3; Mangrish Palekar bt Rupesh Kumar 8-3, 8-6, 7-1).
Quarterfinals: PSCB beat Nagaland 3-0 (Chetan Anand bt Joseph Sumi 7-0, 7-0, 7-0; Abhinn Shyam Gupta bt Yabang 7-0, 7-2, 7-0; Chetan Anand/Markose Bristow bt Joseph Sumi/Yabang 7-2, 7-4, 7-1).
Gujarat beat Punjab 3-1 (Anuj Gupta bt Harish Chander 7-2, 7-0, 7-1; Amar Singh Kundhi lost to Rohan Kapoor 6-8, 8-7, 5-7, 2-7; Sameer Abbasi/Harish Singh Gurkha bt Harish Chander/Gurmukh Singh 7-8, 7-3, 0-7, 7-0, 8-6; Major Singh bt Jaideep Singh Kohli 7-4, 7-0, 5-7, 1-7, 7-0).
Railways beat U.P. 3-1 (Sachin Ratti bt Utsav Mishra 4-7, 7-4, 7-2, 8-6; J.B.S. Vidyadhar lost to Ravinder Singh 7-2, 7-0, 7-1; Vijaydeep Singh/Ratti bt Sushant Saxena/Ravinder Singh 8-7, 7-5, 5-7, 7-2; Arup Baidya bt Sushant Saxena 7-3, 8-6, 0-7, 7-0).
Kerala beat BSB 3-2 (Sanave Thomas lost to D. Guru Prasad 7-4, 2-7, 7-0, 7-3; Rupesh Kumar bt B.G. Kiran 4-7, 7-2, 8-7, 7-1; Rupesh Kumar/Jose George bt Vivek Tatwadi/Arun Pooviaih 7-1, 7-3, 7-0; V. Diju lost to Abhijeet Naimpally 7-3, 7-3, 5-7, 7-5; Thomas/Diju bt Kiran/Guru Prasad 7-0, 7-0, 7-3).
Women's semifinals: PSCB beat Assam 2-0 (Aparna Popat bt Oli Deka 7-1, 7-3, 7-1; G. Jwala/Shruti Kurien bt Oli/Abantika Deka 7-1, 7-1, 7-2).
Air India tied with Andhra Pradesh 1-1 (Trupti Murunde bt Neelima Chaudhary 7-0, 7-2, 7-5; Trupti/Fatima Nazneen lost to Neelima/D. Swetha 3-7, 7-5, 4-7, 7-3; Fatima vs C.H. Deepthi in progress).
Quarterfinals: PSCB beat Bengal 2-0 (Aparna Popat bt Amrita Mukherjee 8-6, 7-1, 7-1; G. Jwala/Shruti Kurien bt Amrita Mukherjee/Amrita Bhattacharjee 7-4, 7-0, 7-0).
Assam beat Delhi 2-1 (Abantika Deka lost to Parul Rawat 7-3, 7-5, 1-7, 2-7, 3-7; Abantika/Sumitra Pujari bt Parul/Isha Gupta 7-5, 7-2, 7-5; Krishti Das bt Sujata 7-4, 7-4, 4-7, 7-3).
Air India beat LIC 2-0 (Trupti Murgunde bt Divya Ramesh 7-2, 8-6, 7-5; Trupti/Fatima Nazneen bt Divya/Leena Pedenkar 7-1, 7-0, 7-3).
A.P. beat Maharashtra 2-0 (Neelima Chaudhary bt Meenakshi Wagh 7-2, 7-0, 7-0; Neelima/D. Swetha bt Vinaya Shetty/Archana Deodhar 7-1, 7-0, 7-3).
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