Victor Far East Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold, Jan. 2016

[sameerph]

The first tournament of the year started yesterday and lots of our players playing here.

These are the results for the day.

[R1] (10) Ajay JAYARAM (IND,21) d. Takuma UEDA (JPN,32) 21-19 21-11
[R1] Subhankar DEY (IND,178) d. Kantaphon WANGCHAROEN (THA,169) 21-19 21-16
[R1] Sameer VERMA (IND,46) d. (12) Sho SASAKI (JPN,24) 21-18 21-18
[R1] (2) K. Srikanth (IND,9) d. Wei Feng CHONG (MAS,41) 21-17 21-11
[R1] B. Sai Praneeth (IND,34) d. Shahzan Shah MISFAHUL (MAS,458) 21-13 21-15

[R1] PV Sindhu (IND,12) d. Sabrina JAQUET (SUI,54) 21-19 21-5
[R1] Jwala GUTTA / Ashwini PONNAPPA (IND) d. Mei Kuan CHOW / LEE Meng Yean (MAS) 21-14 14-21 25-23

[R2] (2) K. Srikanth (IND,9) d. Christie JONATAN (INA,38) 21-16 21-15
[R2] (10) Ajay JAYARAM (IND,21) d. Petr KOUKAL (CZE,87) 21-17 21-17
[R2] B. Sai Praneeth (IND,34) l. (3) Tommy SUGIARTO (INA,11) 14-21 21-10 18-21
[R2] Sameer VERMA (IND,46) l. GOH Soon Huat (MAS,59) 21-7 13-21 16-21
[R2] Subhankar DEY (IND,178) l. XUE Song (CHN,30) 21-16 11-21 19-21

Decent performances by our players as we went 7 out of 7 in the first round and in the second round our 3 mens players lost in very close matches against much higher ranked players.

[sameerph]

These are today's match-ups -

[PQF] (2) K. Srikanth (IND,9) vs. (16) Boonsak PONSANA (THA,29)- Head to head 1-1

[PQF] (10) Ajay JAYARAM (IND,21) vs. Zulfadli ZULKIFFLI (MAS, 42) - No previous matches

[PQF] (3) PV Sindhu (IND,12) vs. Kaori IMABEPPU (JPN,36) - Head to head 2-0 for Sindhu

[PQF] Jwala GUTTA / Ashwini PONNAPPA (IND) vs. Shizuka MATSUO / Mami NAITO (JPN) - Head to head 2-0 in favour of Japanese pair

[sameerph]

All our singles players won today.

[PQF] (2) K. Srikanth (IND,9) d. (16) Boonsak PONSANA (THA,29) 21-17 21-10

[PQF] (10) Ajay JAYARAM (IND,21) d. Zulfadli ZULKIFFLI (MAS, 42) 11-21 21-8 22-20

[PQF] (3) PV Sindhu (IND,12) d. Kaori IMABEPPU (JPN,36) 21-13 13-21 21-14

[PQF] Jwala GUTTA / Ashwini PONNAPPA (IND) l. Shizuka MATSUO / Mami NAITO (JPN) 14-21 17-21

Ajay was down 11-19 in the third game but managed to come back and win.

[arjun2761]

Good performance by the Indians so far. Appears that Srikanth is finally coming back into form and hopefully he can move back to the top-5 this year.

[sameerph]

These are our match-ups for the day.

[QF] (2) K. Srikanth (IND,9) vs. HUANG Yuxiang (CHN,76) - First meeting

[QF] (10) Ajay JAYARAM (IND,21) vs. (1) LEE Chong Wei (MAS,5) - Head to head 7-0 in favour of the Malaysian

[QF] (3) PV Sindhu (IND,12) vs. Lindaweni FANETRI (INA,25) - Head to head 7-2 in favour of Sindhu

Too tough for Ajay. Hopes from Srikanth and Saina.

[ankit1407]

Sindhu moves into SF with an easy win

[QF] (3) PV Sindhu (IND,12) vs. Lindaweni FANETRI (INA,25) 21-10,21-10

[sameerph]

Srikanth won too but Ajay lost as expected.

[QF] (2) K. Srikanth (IND,9) d. HUANG Yuxiang (CHN,76) 21-15 21-14

[QF] (10) Ajay JAYARAM (IND,21) l. (1) LEE Chong Wei (MAS,5) 16-21 16-21

Next,

[SF] (2) K. Srikanth (IND,9) vs. Iskandar Zulkarnain ZAINUDDIN (MAS,51) - Head to head 1-0 for Srikanth

[SF] (3) PV Sindhu (IND,12) vs. (1) SUNG Ji Hyun (KOR,8) - Head to head 3-2 for Sindhu but the Korean has won the last 2 matches.

[sameerph]

Sindhu won thru to the final but Srikanth lost his SF. Exactly the opposite of the results I had expected.

[SF] (2) K. Srikanth (IND,9) l. Iskandar Zulkarnain ZAINUDDIN (MAS,51) 25-27 9-21

[SF] (3) PV Sindhu (IND,12) d. (1) SUNG Ji Hyun (KOR,8) 21-19 12-21 21-10

Excellent win for Sindhu over the Korean whom she had lost to in last 2 meetings.

Next,

[F] (3) PV Sindhu (IND,12) vs. Kirsty GILMOUR (SCO,20) - Head to head 1-0 for Gilmour

[sameerph]

Nice and easy win for Sindhu in the final.


[F] (3) PV Sindhu (IND,12) d. Kirsty GILMOUR (SCO,20) 21-15 21-9

This his her 5th grand prix gold title.

[prashanthm]

Great to see a good start for Sindhu in the Olympic year.......

[Sin Hombre]

Hoping that she can force herself back into the top 8 by the time Rio comes.

[suresh]

Hoping that she can force herself back into the top 8 by the time Rio comes.

I agree. So far, she has not made that move that would keep her in the top 8 for long.

[sameerph]

She will move up a spot to 11th in next week's ranking. She lost some time last year due to injury and that has affected her ranking a bit. Most of her points have come in the last few months of last year. So, if she continues her good form of late, she should get into top 8 by Rio. That will be important to get a good draw there.

[Sin Hombre]

Syed Modi GP gold on this week. Saina was a late withdrawal with illness.

Indians have been the ones getting upset so far. Srikanth needs to win this but is up against his conqueror from last week in the next round.

[sameerph]

Yes, opening a thread for this event.