Date:03/03/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/03/03/stories/2005030307202000.htm

Sport - Badminton

Kanetkar moves up; Gopi Chand ousted

BANGALORE, MARCH 2. Nikhil Kanetkar, Chetan Anand and Aparna Popat moved up in the German Open badminton championship at Mulheim, winning their opening round matches. Pullela Gopi Chand, Abhinn Shyam Gupta and Arvind Bhat made their exits, however.

Kanetkar defeated Japan's Shinya Otuska 15-13,1 5-9 while Chetan Anand defeated Jan Vondra of Czech Republic 15-10,10-15,15-3. Aparna Popat, who ran into bit of trouble in the second game, accounted for Kati Toloff of Estonia 114, 13-11 in the women's singles.

Lew Tsueng Sang of Malaysia outplayed Gopi Chand at 15-7,1 5-4 while Joachim Fischer of Denmark thrashed Abhinn Shyam Gupta 15-4, 15-1. Arvind Bhatt put up a spirited display against H. Conrad of Germany but lost 16-17,15-12, 5-15.

Indian doubles combinations also bowed out. In the men's section, Chu Choon Yang and Choong Dan Fook of Maysia defeated Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas at 15-7,15-9, while Shruti Kurien and Jwala Gutta lost to Zhang and Yang of China 2-15, 1-15.