Date:14/09/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/09/14/stories/2004091407661800.htm

Sport - Badminton

Tisa surprises Aarathi

KOCHI, SEPT. 13. The unseeded Tisa Paul surprised second-seeded Aarathi Sunil 11-6, 0-11, 11-8 and marched into the under-13 girls final of the 11th Kochi Refineries all-Kerala badminton tournament at the KRL auditorium, Ambalamugal, on Monday.

In the boys section, Dileep T.Jacob and Vinod Shanker in the under-16 category and S.Pranav and V.H.Bharath in the under-13 division marched into the semifinals without much fuss.

Sandwiched between the all-India junior ranking event in Kolkata and the forthcoming Canara Bank senior National-ranking tournament in Bangalore, the Kochi meet began today without many of the big names. And the remaining few, like Sankar P.Gopan and Dileep T.Jacob, are expected to have a cake-walk.

The results: Under-16 boys quarterfinals: Vinod Shankar bt Deepak Thomas 17-16, 15-2; Pradeep Jayakumar bt Jithin K.Basil 15-4, 15-11; Arjun M.Nair bt Elbin Francis 12-15, 15-7, 15-10; Dileep T.Jacob bt Tony George 15-2, 15-5.

Under-13 boys quarterfinals: S.Pranav bt Shyam Prasad 15-5, 15-2; Ravishankar bt Aditya Prakash 15-8, 15-10; Abraham Philip bt Arun George 15-7, 15-2; V.H.Bharath bt Sreehari Kesav 15-6, 15-1.

Under-13 girls semifinals: Tisa Paul bt Aarathi Sunil 11-6, 0-11, 11-8. Quarterfinals: Tisa w.o. S.Renjini; Boneeta Bose bt Anagha Unni 11-7, 11-2. — Our Principal Correspondent