Indian Badminton Thread ...

[jaydeep]

Saina won her match in 48 minutes, unexpectedly tough fight from low ranked Taipei player ... After losing first game she managed to keep pressure on Saina in second game to won it ... In third game also she was matching with Saina's game, Chen was up 16-18 then 18-19 but Saian kept her cool to clinch this closely fought match to enter into another Super Series quarter finals.

Peter Gade crushed Chetan in mere 20 minutes ... Very tough loss for Chetan, who is in top-15, against world number 5 ... But Anup gave good fighting performance against world number 4 Sony Kuncoro in 34 minutes match ... He saved 5 match points but despite loss very encouraging comeback after long injury break to competitive badminton for Anup.

At $200K Malaysia Super Series 2009, Kuala Lumpur

[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,10) bt Hsiao Huan Chen (TPE,162) 21-16 19-21 21-19

[R2] Chetan Anand (IND,15) l (3) Peter Hoeg Gade (DEN,5) 7-21 8-21
[R2] Anup Sridhar (IND,45) l (2) Sony Dwi Kuncoro (INA,4) 12-21 18-21

[R2] Diju V (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l Kien Keat Koo (MAS)/ Hui Lin Ng (MAS) 18-21 14-21

[QF] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,10) vs (4) Hongyan Pi (FRA,7)

[BSharma]

[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,10) bt Hsiao Huan Chen (TPE,162) 21-16 19-21 21-19

Tough fight by Chen, but I am glad that Saina was able to pull it out in the end and move into the QF.

[jaydeep]

Another promising performance from Saina against Pi in 56 minutes match ... In the first game Pi maintained lead from start to win it ... In second game both players were going neck to neck but Pi take 3 points lead from 16-all ... But Saina fought back to make it 19-all and won game after saving 4 match points ... In the third game after 10-all Pi take control of the game and didin't give any chance of comeback to Saina.

At $200K Malaysia Super Series 2009, Kuala Lumpur

[QF] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,10) l (4) Hongyan Pi (FRA,7) 17-21 26-24 16-21

[jaydeep]

This week our players r participating in Korean Super Series ... Saina received bye in the first round as her Canadian opponent Charmaine Reid withdraw after qualifying ... Pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas were also lucky as their first round opponent Indonesian pair withdrew.

At $300K Korean Super Series 2009,

[R1] P Kashyap (IND,49) vs (7) Przemyslaw Wacha (POL,12)
[R1] Chetan Anand (IND,15) vs Arvind Bhat (IND,35)
[R1] Anup Sridhar (IND,45) vs Wei Ng (HKG,24)
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,50) vs Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif (MAS,69)

[R1] (5) saina Nehwal (IND,10) bye
[R1] Aditi Mutatkar (IND,36) vs Julia Pei Xian Wong (MAS,21)

[R1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) bye

[R1] V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Yeon Seong Yoo (KOR)/ Min Jung Kim (KOR)

[R2] (5) saina Nehwal (IND,10) vs Adrianti Firdasari (INA,35)

[jaydeep]

For me disappointing day for Indians ... Frankly nobody take advantage of their opponents ... Arvind surprised his senior with easy victory in just 24 minutes ... Diju and Jwala scored hard fought win against local player, but facing top-seed in second round.

Aditi lost against Malaysian in 28 minutes ... Anand Pawar had good opportunity to move deep into draw after WR #5 Sony's withdrawal but he lost easily against lowly ranked Malaysian in 26 minutes ... Anup Sridhar had excellent opportunity against Wei Ng, after one game-all in the third game Anup was down 12-16 but he won next 8 points to gave himself 4 match points ... Somehow he didn't manage to convert one of them and lost match 22-24 in 63 minutes.

At $300K Korean Super Series 2009,

[R1] P Kashyap (IND,49) l (7) Przemyslaw Wacha (POL,12) 11-21 17-21
[R1] Arvind Bhat (IND,35) bt Chetan Anand (IND,15) 21-12 21-13
[R1] Anup Sridhar (IND,45) l Wei Ng (HKG,24) 23-21 17-21 22-24
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,50) l Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif (MAS,69) 14-21 15-21

[R1] Aditi Mutatkar (IND,36) l Julia Pei Xian Wong (MAS,21) 9-21 15-21

[R1] V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Yeon Seong Yoo (KOR)/ Min Jung Kim (KOR) 21-19 14-21 21-19

[R2] Arvind Bhat (IND,35) vs (7) Przemyslaw Wacha (POL,12)
[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,10) vs Adrianti Firdasari (INA,35)

[R2] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) vs (3) Lars Paaske (DEN)/ Jonas Rasmussen (DEN)

[R2] V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs (1) Nova Widianto (INA)/ Liliyana Natsir (INA)

[jaydeep]

Another close loss for Indian ... Arvind started well winning first game but then Wacha controlled the match ... In third game Arvind produced excellent fight back from 13-19 to 19-all but Wacha managed to win match in 57 minutes.

Very shocking result for Saina in recent days ... After longtime she lost match to lower rank player ... She started well winning first game but Firdasari turned table on her from second game.

Diju and Jwala Gutta scored biggest upset of Korean Super Series beating top-seed Indonasin in 3 games ... In quarters they r facing another seeded Indonasian pair.

At $300K Korean Super Series 2009,

[R2] Arvind Bhat (IND,35) l (7) Przemyslaw Wacha (POL,12) 21-11 14-21 21-23
[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,10) l Adrianti Firdasari (INA,35) 21-18 18-21 12-21

[R2] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l (3) Lars Paaske (DEN)/ Jonas Rasmussen (DEN) 10-21 15-21

[R2] V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt (1) Nova Widianto (INA)/ Liliyana Natsir (INA) 10-21 21-16 21-9

[QF] V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs (8) Wijaya Rendra (INA)/ Meiliana Jauhari (INA)

[jaydeep]

This pair is cooking up in MXD ... They showed yesterday's win against World Nr. 1 pair and current world champion wasn't fluke beating another seeded pair from Indonasia ... They defeated this 8th seed pair in 34 minutes ... In both matched they showed very strong performance in third game to win it easily and that's really creditable on this higher level.

So Diju and Jwala r laying their first Super Series semi-final against 4th seed Thai pair.

Also yesterday's win over WR #1 pair was first win by our any pairs against doubles or mixed doubles current world number one.

At $300K Korean Super Series 2009,

[QF] V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt (8) Wijaya Rendra (INA)/ Meiliana Jauhari (INA) 21-17 16-21 21-9

[SF] V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs (4) Songphon Anugritayawon (THA)/ Kunchala Voravichitchaikul (THA)

[jaydeep]

Dream run ended for our pair but they played exceptionally well to become first Indian pair to reach Super Series semi-final ... They lost in closely fought match, in second game they did catching game to produce fight but they couldn't turn it into win.

At $300K Korean Super Series 2009,

[SF] V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l (4) Songphon Anugritayawon (THA)/ Kunchala Voravichitchaikul (THA) 19-21 20-22

[jaydeep]

After 2 super series tournaments new rankings r updated ... After reaching semis into Korean Super series our MXD team of Diju and Jwala first time entered into top-20 MXD team ... Chetan also reached his personal high on #13 ... Saina remain on #10 but now difference between 8th, 9th and 10th players is few hundred points.

Mens Singles
13 Chetan Anand 41640 pts
27 Arvind Bhat 32727 pts
37 Anup Sridhar 27352 pts
44 Anand Pawar 26130 pts
47 P Kashyap 25520 pts

Womens Singles
10 Saina Nehwal 51170 pts
38 Aditi Mutatkar 28400 pts

Mens Doubles
25 Rupesh Kumar/ Sanave Thomas 27866 pts

MXD
17 V Diju/ Jwala Gutta 33260 pts

[Sandeep]

PSPB has won both the team titles in the Badminton nationals which is underway at Indore. No surprise as this was expected. The tournament has lost some of its charm with both Saina and Chetan unavailable because of injuries.

By the way, in the semifinals between PSPB and Maharashtra (Men's), top seed Arvind Bhatt lost to Sagar Chopda in the first singles match. That is one huuuuggge upset which was not covered by any of the newspapers except for reporting the scoreline. Sagar Chopda is a former junior champion and along with Kashyap was considered as Indian future. He was off the boil for some time now and seems to have improved very well going by that result. It will be interesting to watch his progress in the men's singles event.

[Sandeep]

P.C.Thulasi of kerala created the biggest upset of the tournament by beating top seed Neha Pandit of Maharashtra. She won 22-20, 21-19 . Except for this result all the seeds were through. Tomorrow it is pre-quarterfinals, there are some some exciting match ups. It will be interesting to see how Kashyap, Anand Pawar, Sagar Chopda, Guru Said Dutt, Sikki Reddy, Thulasi and Aparna Balan will play tomorrow. All these players are our future and everyone have either won or reached Junior national finals.

[suresh]

Sandeep,

What do you think of Sikki Reddy? I have seen her play doubles -- she seemed too erratic giving away some easy points.

Suresh

[jaydeep]

So at the 73rd edition of the national badminton championship gave us two new champions — Arvind Bhat in the men’s and Sayali Gokhale in the women’s ... Arvind's win was expected seeing his recent form but Sayali Gokhale's win was huge surprise ... Sayali never won junior national titles so in Saina's absentee she scored huge victory against Trupti Murgunde (her first against her) in semis to gave herself chance ... And she fulfilled her dream beating this nationals gian-killer P.C. Thulasi in 3 games.

[jayakris]

PC Thulasi surprised everybody. Good fight in the final too. I believe she is the first malayali girl in the nationals final (as per Malayala Manorama).

Jay

[shashi]

Thulasi is a fantastic talent and the one for the future.I saw a match on DD sports of her playing Sikki Reddy and she simply manhandled Sikki .One look at her and you will know the talent that she possesses.I was expecting her to win the finals.Maybe better luck next time.