Date:09/08/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/08/09/stories/2004080903501700.htm

Sport - Badminton

Tough draw for Aparna Popat

NEW DELHI, AUG. 8. Aparna Popat, India's main hope in the Olympic Games badminton competition, has a likely tough second-round meeting with world No. 4 and fourth-seeded Mia Audina Tjiptawan.

In the draw announced by the International Badminton Federation on Sunday, Aparna, ranked 27 in the world at present, is scheduled to meet South African Michelle Edwards, world No. 64 in the opening round. Mia Tjiptawan, the former Indonesian star now representing the Netherlands, is drawn to meet debutant Jamaican Nigella Saunders and will take on the winner of the Aparna-Edwards match next.

Abhinn Shyam Gupta, the 41st-ranked Indian, also has a difficult task, drawn as he is to meet Korea's Park Tae Sang, world No. 16 in the opening round of the men's singles championship. The other Indian, Nikhil Kanetkar, ranked 48, has an even chance against Spaniard Sergio Llopis in the first round, but sis expected to meet Denmark's sixth-seed and former All England champion Peter Gade Christensen in the next round.