Indian Badminton Thread ...

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Indian Badminton Thread ...

Post by PKBasu »

India has a wonderful badminton tradition, going back to Nandu Natekar, Suresh Goel, Prakash Padukone, Syed Modi (all of whom were national champion for at least 5 years, and were international stars to boot) and coming down to Pullela Gopichand who is still capable of competing with the top players in the world (despite being plagued by injuries in recent years).
Prakash and Gopichand of course reached the pinnacle of their sport by winning the singles at the All-England Championship (badminton's equivalent of Wimbledon). Prakash also won the "grand slam" that year (taking the Danish and French Opens, I think; although the Badminton grand slam is a less clearly defined phenomenon than tennis or golf). None of the other main tournaments has been around long enough or steadily enough, but Prakash also won the World Cup in 1980 (I think) at Kuala Lumpur, and won virtually everything else there was to win in his sport (until moving to Denmark, where Morten Frost Hansen -- who he had never lost to before moving there -- mastered his game and became Prakash's nemesis in his later years). Gopichand hasn't quite regained the magical form that won him the All-England, and says that he will retire at the end of next year (hopefully after he has won an Olympic medal). Natekar was runner-up at the All-England as was Prakash Nath, and Syed Modi was a semi-finalist before being murdered in his prime (allegedly at the behest of a politician who went on to marry his wife Amita Kulkarni).
Last edited by jaydeep on Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by PKBasu »

Nice bit of news here:
http://in.rediff.com/sports/2003/nov/19bad.htm
AbhinnShyam Gupta (the national champion) and Kanetkar will hopefully live up to the illustrious history of the sport in India.
Here's a listing of India's national champions. Note the tendency for one player to dominate over long periods (especially Padukone, Syed Modi, Natekar, Suresh Goel -- occasionally challenged by the likes of Dipu Ghosh and Dinesh Khanna -- and recently Gopichand).
http://www.badmintonindia.org/archives/ ... /nc_ms.htm
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Post by Kumar »

Gopichand is one of the greatest sportsman to come out of India. After having a severe knee injury he came back to win All England Open and I am not aware of any other Indians to reach the pinnacle of their sport after such an injury .

He has been beset a lot by injuries and switchover to 11 point format really upset his rhythm. I am not very surprised to see him wanting to retire.

Whatever he does from now on, HATS OFF to him !!!!
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Post by BSharma »

I never had the pleasure to watch Prakash or Gopichand play but I was fortunate to see Nandu Natekar, Suresh Goel and Dinesh Khanna play several times. I hope that the young badminton players in India can equal or exceed the achievements of the famous Indian stars.
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Post by PKBasu »

Bhushan, was the badminton great Dinesh Khanna also the famous (or should I say infamous?) tennis administrator (or were they two separate people with the same name?).
Nandu Natekar of course decided to focus on badminton instead of tennis after losing the national junior tennis championship to Ramanathan Krishnan. His son Gaurav also didn't quite make it to the top in tennis (although I think he reached the Wimbledon junior doubles final in the company of Mahesh Bhupathi).
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Post by BSharma »

PKB, I do not know if the Asian Badminton champion and All-England semifinalist Dinesh Khanna was or is a tennis administrator. He was employed by Indian Oil Corporation and after his playing days were over he became the secretary of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board in New Delhi. Perhaps he may have organized tennis tournaments under the banner of PSPB.

I wonder if Sunil Y., a tennis administrator in Delhi and an occasional visitor and poster of this forum, can shed some light on this subject.
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Post by BSharma »

India's Nikhil Kanetkar defeated Evgenij Isakov of Russia 15-0, 15-12 to move into the second round of the Bitburger Open badminton tournament, being played in Saarbruecken, Germany. Nikhil will play Per-Hendrik Croona of Sweden in the second round. This is a Grade 1 level tournament and a good showing by Nikhil can raise his ranking and perhaps get him a spot in the 2004 Olympics.

Nikhil recently won the Toulouse Open in France.
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Post by BSharma »

If I can translate the German language correctly from the German website, Per-Hendrik Croona of Sweden defeated Nikhil Kanetkar 14:17 15:6 15:4 in the second round.

Croona then beat Michael Christensen of Denmark before losing to Dicky Palyama of Denmark in the quarterfinal.
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Post by david »

Doubles Winners:Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien

WOMEN: SINGLES QUARTERFINALS
L Trupti Murgunde (Mah) bt Aditi Mutatkar (Mah) 11-2, 11-0; Manjusha Kanwar
(PSPB) bt BR Meenakshi (PSPB) 2-11, 11-9, 11-4; Saina Nehwal (AP) bt Krishna
Deka Raja (Asm) 11-7, 1-7; Aparna Popat (PSPB) bt Shruti Kurien (PSPB) 11-1,
11-1.
SEMIFINALS
Aparna Popat bt Saina Nehwal 11-3, 11-5; Trupti Murgunde bt Manjusha Kanwar
11-2, 11-5.

WOMEN DOUBLES SEMIS
G Jwala/Shruti Kurien bt BR Meenakshi/Ch Deepti 15-6, 15-5; Trupti
Murugunde/Fatima N Mohd bt Manjusha Kanwar/Archana Deodhar 15-2, 15-4.

FINALS
Jwala/Shruti bt Trupti/Fatima 5-15, 15-4, 15-4.

MEN'S SINGLES QUARTERFINALS
Chetan Anand (PSPB) bt Hemant Duggal (Rly) 15-3, 15-5;
JBS Vidyadhar (PSPB) bt Utsav Mishra (UP) 15-9, 13-15, 17-14;
Aravind Bhat (PSPB) bt Sachin Ratti (Rly) 15-8, 17-15;
Abhinn Shyam Gupta (PSPB) bt Anoop Sridhar (Ktk) 15-8, 15-1.

SEMIFINAL
Chetan Anand bt Vidyadhar 15-10, 7-15, 15-9;
Arvind Bhat (PSPB) bt Abhinn Shyam Gupta 15-12, 3-15, 15-7.

MEN'S DOUBLES QUARTERFINALS
Sanave Thomas/V Diju bt Mayur Ghatnekar & Mangrish Polekar (Rly) 15-8,
15-11; Jaseel P Ismail/JBS Vidyadhar bt A Pridvi/P Sunil (AP) 15-11, 15-12;
Ajith Wijetilak/Jose George (Ktk) 15-11, 10-15, 15-7; Markose Bristow/Rupesh
Kumar (PSPB) bt Varun Khanwilkar/Mitesh Hazarnish (Rly) 15-12, 15-4.

SEMIFINALS
Ismail/Vidyadhar bt Sanave Thomas/V Diju 15-10, 15-5;
Markose Bristow/Rupesh Kumar bt Wijetilak/George 15-2, 17-14.
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Post by suresh »

I do not follow badminton closely but the scores in the women's matches indicates
that there is a huge gap between Aparna Popat and the next bunch. Well that might
be okay but then this bunch seems to be much much better than the others. It looks
like the talent pool is rather thin? I hope my conclusion is wrong.
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Post by david »

Certainly there is a big gap between Aprana and others.
Well that might
be okay but then this bunch seems to be much much better than the others.

Means?
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Post by david »

Results (All finals)
Men's singles: Chetan Anand (PSPB) bt Arvind Bhat (PSPB) 15-12, 15-8.

Women's singles:
Aparna Popat (PSPB) bt Trupti Murugunde (Mah) 11-0, 11-8.

Men's doubles: Markose Bristow/Rupesh Kumar (PSPB) bt Jaseel P Ismail/JBS Vidyadhar (PSPB) 15-5, 15-6.

Mixed doubles:
P Gopi Chand/Jwala Gutta bt Jaseel/Manjusha Kanwar 15-6, 8-15, 15-3.
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Post by Dhruv »

Badminton, whatever happened to all those UP players that the KD Singh stadium used to produce. The first sport I actually played competitively IIRC. We had Syed Modi etc come to practice at the courts, even had a one or two USSR vs India test matches there.
I was under 10 then so I don't have an exact recollection :). But seriously, now even the badminton players that seemed to come from here have dried up. The UP sports college used to produce great hockey talent as well.
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Post by david »

Hadi Sugianto of Indonesia is appointed as doubles coach and will be assisted by national coach Vimal Kumar.
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Post by BSharma »

Dhruv asked:
Badminton, whatever happened to all those UP players that the KD Singh stadium used to produce.
Dhruv, perhaps the answer may be in the article linked below. So long as KD Singh Babu was in charge he made sure that the sports school functioned well, and several good players were its products. Alas, the times have changed. :(

Every Saturday evening during my medical student days I would go past the stadium and the sports school for "ganjing". :D

Mayawati queers pitch with 50% sports quota
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