Date:26/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/26/stories/2006052606681900.htm

Sport - Badminton

Chetan Anand enters pre-quarterfinals

New Delhi: Former National champion Chetan Anand moved into the men's pre-quarterfinals of the Phillipines Open badminton tournament with a 19-21, 21-7, 21-17 win over Ismail Saman of Malaysia in Manila on Thursday, according to information received here.

Earlier Chetan defeated lowly Jun Takemura of Japan 21-19, 21-13 in just 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal and Sayali Gokhale pulled off stunning victories against the higher ranked Sutheaswari Mudukasan of Malaysia and Anna Rice of Canada in the women's draw on the opening day.

Arvind Bhat, Anup Sridhar, Anand Pawar and P. Kashyap also began the men's campaign on a winning note, sailing into the second round on Wednesday.

Ranked 86th in the world, Saina enacted a giant-killing act to shock the 31st ranked Mudukasan 21-16, 21-19 in just 28 minutes. Sixteen-year-old Saina will face Japan's Imai Sachiyo in the second round.

Sayali stuns Anna

Nineteen-year-old Sayali followed suit to stun Anna, world No. 29 and fifth seed in the tournament, 16-21, 22-20, 21-16 in a 63-minute thriller. Gokhale next meets Japan's Ai Goto in the round of 16.

However, Missha Ruth and Aditi Mutatkar crashed out of the tournament with Ruth losing to Anita Raj Kaur of Malaysia 21-15, 21-14, while Mutatkar went down to Wong Pei Xian Julia of Malaysia 21-13, 21-11.

Easy time

P. Kashyap and Arvind Bhatt also had easy outings against their opponents. Kashyap took 20 minutes to beat Mailon Alfredo of Philippines 21-13, 21-12, while Bhatt defeated Pei Wei Chung of Malaysia 22-20, 21-17 in 34 minutes.

Made to sweat

However, National champion Anup Sridhar and Anand Pawar had to sweat it out to carve out come-from-behind wins against local players.

While Sridhar needed 45 minutes to get past Rodal Bartolome 14-21, 21-8, 22-20, Pawar fashioned a 23-25, 21-14, 21-8 win over Arolas Amahit Jr. in 50 minutes.

It was only Rohan Castelino who lost among Indian men, going down without much fight to Thai Poompat Sapkulchananart 21-5, 21-14. — Agencies