Day of stunning upsets

Jamshedpur, 4 February 04:
Thomas Kurien and Utsav Misra produced two of the greatest upsets in recent Indian badminton to enter the semifinals of the 69th National Badminton Championships here last night.
Misra dismissed defending champion Chetan Anand, while Kurien buried the hopes of another title contender, Arvind Bhat, both in three tight games. The third upset was Anup Sridhar's straight games defeat of JBS Vidyadhar. The fourth entrant to the semifinals was warhorse Abhinn Shyam Gupta, who systematically dismantled the challenge of Nikhil Kanetkar.

Among the women, things went more or less according to expectations, except Jwala Gutta's surprise elimination of BR Meenakshi in straight games. Jwala will play Aparna Popat, while hot contender Saina Nehwal will face Trupti Murgunde in the semifinals. There were no surprises in the combined events.

At 14-10 in the third game, with Utsav serving, a stunned silence prevailed in the stadium. Had Chetan Anand's time come? Earlier, on the same court, Thomas, displaying tremendous speed and tenacity, had seen three match points go abegging against Arvind. But then, off the fourth match point, a brief exchange resulted in a drive that Arvind marginally sent wide. Thomas crashed to the court in exultation: he had achieved his first win over the formidable PSPB player, who was expected to win this time.

Utsav's final moments were just as tense. He got his first match point when Chetan, uncharacteristically nervous, sprayed wide. But a long rally followed, and Utsav finally hit wide.
In earlier times, perhaps, Chetan could have salvaged this match. But Utsav was in a different league this time, refusing to give a point even after Chetan had saved four match points. On the fifth, Chetan finally hit a weak return out.

Kurien was astoundingly fast, displayed a brilliant defence to counter Arvind's huge jump smashes, and countered with some big hits of his own. The match showcased sledgehammer blows from either side -- while on an adjacent court, Nikhil played Abhinn, and the match wore on and on, tosses back and forth, as Abhinn sucked the blood out of his opponent. There could not have been a greater contrast than the two matches.

Nikhil's strategy was to suddenly attack, use the clipped smash to surprise Abhinn, and he succeeded in the first game. But as the second game wore on, it took its toll on his lean body. He took too much time between points -- which led to a red card from the chair umpire.

Surprisingly, Nikhil chose to fight out the second game. Players generally prefer to let Abhinn win the second, and rest themselves for the critical third game. But Nikhil fought hard, using the slow drops and high tosses, and suddenly leaping to execute a sliced drop or half smash.

But nothing could perturb Abhinn. He returned everything that Nikhil hurled at him. To Nikhil's credit, he kept up the challenge till late in the third game, even inching at 9-10. But from then on, Abhinn jumped ahead, surprising Nikhil with his aggression and body smashes. After Nikhil earned a break at 13-9, Abhinn jumped at his serve and smashed to the body, then served out at 15-9.

Can Kurien upset Abhinn in the semis? He has never beaten him earlier. Can Anup beat Utsav Misra in the second semis? Can anyone prevent Abhinn from taking his third title? As things stand, Anup looks the likeliest challenger to Abhinn, but he must first dispose off Utsav in the semis.

In any case, Kurien can take heart from his exception performance so far. He came with guns blazing against Arvind, blasting away the high jump smashes from the baseline, then swooping to the net to cut off Arvind's dribble. On balance, Arvind is the more talented player, he has more variety, greater deception, and more equipment. When he won a tight first set, therefore, everyone thought it was a matter of time before Arvind closed it out. The first game itself was tight all the way, right up to 14-all, Kurien serving. But Arvind got the break after he returned a flurry of big smashes, and then closed it out at 17-14.
Somehow, that seemed to dry up Arvind's reserves as Thomas led all the way in the second, with leads of 7-4 and 12-9, before Arvind fought back to make it 12-all. A tense struggle ensued, and Kurien finally inched ahead at 13-12 and 14-12. Arvind threw everything into the challenge, but Kurien resisted bravely, refusing to yield a point at 12-14 to his opponent. Although he missed an easy kill at 14-12, he didn't allow it to disturb him, but held on to take the second set 15-12. He continued with the same momentum to take the third.

Full credit to Anup too, as he edged out Vidyadhar 17-14 17-14. Anup looks far more driven and aggressive, as he constantly shouted encouragement to himself, peaking in a flamboyant: "What's my name!" when he won the first game. He earned a warning from the chair umpire, but the attitude left no doubt in anyone's mind: Anup really wanted this one.

After 14-all in the first game, Anup edged to win in 17. He countered Vidyadhar's big smashes with immaculate length and brilliant net play. Still, there were times when he could do nothing as JBS sent in his big smashes from the baseline.

JBS even led 8-4 in the second, but Anup is perhaps a little tougher this year. Vidyadhar made two errors, even smashing a kill into the net, and compounding that with a dribble error, as ANup came abreast at 7-8, and then 9-all.

JBS inched ahead 11-9, but made a service fault that helped Anup pull up at 11-all.
That went to 13-all, and then 14-all. The momentum suddenly shifted Anup's way as Vidyadhar cracked under pressure to give him the match 17-14, 17-14.



Results: Quarterfinals:
Men's Singles:
Thomas Kurien bt Arvind Bhat 14-17 15-12 15-10; Abhinn Shyam Gupta bt Nikhi Kanetkar 8-15 15-8 15-9; Anup Sridhar bt JBS Vidyadhar 17-14 17-14; Utsav Misra bt Chetan Anand
Women's Singles:
Aparna Popat bt Aparna Balan 11-1 11-1; Trupti Murgunde bt Krishna Deka 13-11 11-3; Saina Nehwal bt Sruti Kurien 11-13 11-8 11-1; Jwala Gutta bt BR Meenakshi 11-7 13-10.