The Hindu : Gopi Chand in a tear away hurry

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 18, 2002

Sport

Sport - Badminton

Gopi Chand in a tear away hurry

By Our Special Correspondent

KANPUR APRIL 17. Within hours of reaching the city after travelling for more than half a day, P. Gopi Chand needed only 15 minutes to move into the pre-quarterfinals of the Late Hari Chand

All India major ranking badminton tournament at the furnace-like Green Park Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday.

Given the hot and humid conditions, both inside and outside the playing arena, the former All England champion saw the futility of spending more time on the court and raced away to a 7-0, 7-1, 7-0 victory over Tamil Nadu's qualifier G.D. Yuvraj Kumar.

Gopi's match followed the formal inauguration of the Rs. four lakh prize-money event. He did not show any discomfort right through the match and proved his superiority with expected ease.

Though three other seeds, Chetan Anand, Arvind Bhatt and Ravinder Singh also posted straight-game victories, Andhra Pradesh's C.M. Shashidhar, Kerala's Roopesh Kumar and Madhya Pradesh's Nimesh Goel emerged winners in matches that went the distance.

Shashidhar, ranked 14th in the country survived a second-game washout to oust Uttar Pradesh's rising hope, Utsav Mishra. The 50-minute encounter ended when Shashidhar converted his second match-point for a 7-0, 0-7, 7-5, 5-7, 7-5 verdict.

Utsav, ranked 10th in the country, fought all the way but failed to handle the big points better in the third and fifth games. Shashidhar now faces Joy T. Anthony who upstaged his Kerala teammate Sanave Thomas 7-6, 7-0, 7-0.

Roopesh Kumar blew up a match-point while leading 6-1 in the fourth game against Maharashtra's Sanket Shetty, but made amends by coming back from a match-point down in the decider to win 4-7, 7-4, 7-5, 6-8, 8-7 in the day's longest match, lasting an hour.

This nervous battle witnessed many fluctuations with both players tossing away several chances to gain control. Roopesh needed five game-points to seal the first game. Shetty reeled off nine straight points to win the fourth game and open a 2-0 lead in the decider. But thereafter, both players gained points by turns. Roopesh then saved a match-point and won the last two points to set up a clash with Railways' J.B.S. Vidyadhar.

In the last match of the session, Nimesh Goel converted his second match-point against Mayur Ghatnekar to win 7-2, 0-7, 7-5, 5-7, 8-6 in 53 minutes. After being blanked in the second game, Goel did well to fight back from 3-5 in the third to claim the game.

Undeterred, Ghatnekar forced the decider by breaking away from five-all in the fourth game. In the final game, Goel never trailed though Ghatnekar drew level five times in the match. But Goel was up to the task when it really mattered. He won two points in succession to earn a crack at Chetan Anand, seeded two.

The results:

Men's singles (first round) : P. Gopi Chand (IOC) bt G.D. Yuvraj Kumar (TN) 7-0, 7-1, 7-0; Hemant Duggal (Rlys) w/o. Abhijeet Naimpally (BSB); J. B. S. Vidyadhar (Rlys) bt Manish Sharma (UP) 7-1, 7-0, 7-0; Roopesh Kumar (Ker) bt Sanket Shetty (Mah) 4-7, 7-4, 7-5, 6-7, 8-7; Arvind Bhatt (Kar) bt Rohan Kapoor (Pun) 7-0, 7-5, 7-3; Arup Baidya (Rlys) bt V. Diju (Ker) 7-1, 7-4, 7-0; C. M. Shashidhar (AP) bt Utsav Mishra (UP) 7-0, 0-7, 7-5, 5-7, 7-5; Joy T. Anthony (Ker) bt Sanave Thomas (Ker) 7-6, 7-0, 7-0; Mangrish Palekar (Rlys) bt K. R. Shiv Kumar (TN) 7-3, 7-2, 1-7, 7-2; Siddharth Jain (ONGC) bt Rutuparna Kulkarni (Mah) 4-7, 7-2, 7-5, 7-1; Thomas Kurien (Ker) bt Madhur Kalia (Rlys) 7-2, 7-4, 8-6; Ravinder Singh (UP) bt S. S. Kannan (TN) 7-3, 7-5, 7-2; Sushant Saxena (UP) bt B. G. Kiran (BSB) 4-7, 7-4, 7-1, 7-2; Sachin Ratti (Rlys) bt Pallav Deka (Asm) 7-1, 7-0, 7-2; Nimesh Goel (MP) bt Mayur Ghatnekar (Mah) 7-2, 0-7, 7-5, 5-7, 8-6; Chetan Anand (ONGC) bt Arul Sundaram (Del) 7-5, 7-2, 7-1.

Men's doubles (first round): Jaseel P. Ismail and Jaison Xavier (PSCB) bt Rohan Kapoor (Pun) and Jibi Vergese (Rlys) 7-0, 7-1, 7-3; Ajay Kanwar (Del) and Sachin Ratti (Rlys) bt Ajay Mathur and Manish Sharma (UP) 7-1, 7-4, 7-1; Mitesh Hazarnis and J.B.S. Vidyadhar (Rlys) bt Mayur Ghatnekar and V. Khanvilkar (Mah) 7-2 7-3, 7-1; Vijaydeep Singh (Rlys) and Utsav Mishra (UP) 7-3, 5-7, 7-1, 7-1.

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