Date:21/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/10/21/stories/2005102108482000.htm

Sport - Badminton

Chopda, Kashyap, Utsav post upset wins

Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI: National junior champion Sagar Chopda showed the maturity of a seasoned campaigner and knocked out World No. 111 and second-seeded Malaysian Law Yew Thien to complete a highly satisfying opening day for the host in the Asian Satellite badminton championship here on Thursday.

At the Siri Fort indoor hall, the spotlight was on the youngsters with National junior runner-up P. Kashyap packing off third seed and four-time Pakistan National champion Wajid Ali for a place in the pre-quarterfinals.

The other upset result of the second round came when Utsav Mishra, accounted for sixth-seeded Malaysian Tan Chun Seang. In fact, 12 Indians occupied the last 16 spots in the men's singles to live up to the pre-event expectations.

Superb court-craft

Sagar, a trainee of Ravi Kunte, displayed superb court-craft and economy of movement on way to a 15-4, 7-15, 15-6 victory over Law Yew Thien during the 57-minute thriller. The Maharashtra-lad raced away with the first game and even led 7-4 in the second before the Malaysian clawed back into the match. In the decider, from 4-4, Sagar won the next seven points to signal the beginning of the end. At 13-5, Sagar served five times but failed to enhance his tally after faltering in his attempt to reach match-point. Once the serve returned to Sagar, he won the two points needed to advance.

The results (Indians unless stated):

Men's singles (second round): Abhinn Shyam Gupta bt Rizwan Azam (Pak) 15-8, 15-3; Jinshu Sanyal bt Zafar Tasneem (Pak) 15-7, 15-11; Lim Kenn (Mas) bt Lranga Fernando (Sri) 15-4, 15-8; Ravindra Singh bt Ali Shahoseini (Iri) 15-8, 15-11; P. Kashyap bt Wajid Ali (Pak) 15-5, 3-0 (conceded); Sachin Ratti bt Amir Islam (Pak) 15-2, 15-6; Anand Pawar bt Shahram Karami (Iri) 15-2, 15-3; K. Tanishak bt C.M. Sashidhar 15-9, 15-9; Ajay Jayaram bt Rohan Castelino 15-12, 11-15, 15-9; Utsav Mishra bt Tan Chun Seang (Mas) 17-14, 17-15; Balram Thapa (Nep) bt Yara Pahlavan (Iri) 15-12, 15-6; Thomas Kurian bt Imran Mohib (Pak) 15-4, 15-3; Zeeshan Omar (Pak) bt Rajiv Bajaj 15-8, 15-3; Golam Reza Bagheri (Iri) bt Hashir Bashir (Pak) 15-8, 15-10; Hemant Duggal bt Rituparna Kulkarni 15-11, 15-12; Sagar Chopda bt Law Yew Thien (Mas) 15-4, 7-15, 15-6.

Tasneem bt Himanshu Kharbanda 15-9, 15-8; Sanyal bt Utsav Prakash 15-9, 15-1; Shahoseini bt Mohammad Ijaz (Iri) 15-5, 15-1; Ravindra bt Arup Baidya 15-5, 15-7; Amir bt Indra Mehta (Nep) 15-7, 15-8; Ratti bt Daren Liew (Mal) 13-15, 15-2, 15-8; Karami bt Yehan Ranasinghe (Sri) 15-9, 15-5; K. Tanishak bt Yew Tay Ken (Mas) 15-7, 15-4; Sashidhar bt Ali Yar Beg (Pak) 15-5, 15-2; Jayaram bt Ahmed Waqas (Pak) 15-4, 15-5; Castelino bt Dinuka Karunaratne (Sri) 15-10, 15-11; Mishra bt Atif (Pak) 15-5, 15-3; Pahlavan bt Mong Ho Khek (Mas) 15-11, 15-7; Thapa bt Mayank Behl 15-10, 15-5; Bajaj bt L.M. Karunatileke (Sri) 15-9, 15-7; Zeeshan bt Bhanu Pratap Tripathi 15-3, 15-11; Duggal bt Syed Shabbar Hussain (Pak) 15-7, 15-2; Kulkarni bt Ram Singh Chaudhari (Nep) 15-5, 15-1.