Heartbreak for Malaysia

Tokyo, 5 May: It was heartbreak for Malaysia as Denmark pulled off the last rubber of their semifinal tie to run into China for the Thomas Cup. China, meanwhile, thrashed Indonesia in their semifinal and look well set to take both the Thomas and Uber Cup.

Malaysia, who were reckoned to be the most potent threat to China during their run-up to the semis, missed the services of the injured Wong Choon Hann, and Denmark made that count as Joachim Persson won the fifth match against Kuan Beng Hong.

The hero of Denmark's win, was however Peter Gade, who scored a remarkable win over world No.2 Lee Chong Wei, who was looking almost unbeatable in the last few months. Gade's win took the wind out of Malaysia's sails, and they trailed right through.

Keat and Chan equalised the tie for Malaysia, beating Hansen and Eriksen 30-28 in the second and 21-6 in the third. Kenneth Jonassen then scored another big point, downing Hafiz Hashim in three tight games. Choong and Lee Wan Wah restored parity in the doubles, over Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen, and it was finally down to the last match. Last year's ABC finalist Kuan was expected to win the tie for his country, but faltered against Persson.

Meanwhile, the biggest story in the other semifinal was Lin Dan's hammering of Taufik Hidayat. Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng escaped a tight first game against Alven and Luluk, and Bao Chunlai nailed home the last point over Sony DK.

For complete scores click here.

India fail to make the grade

2 May '06
Tokyo: Denmark eased into the semifinals of the Thomas Cup, giving no quarter to India in a ruthless 3-0 finish.
A youthful Indian team could not even take a game off the European champions.
Meanwhile, China strolled into the last four and await the winners of the quarterfinal between Indonesia and Japan.

Peter Gade set things up with a comfortable 14 and 8 demolition of Chetan Anand. Kenneth Jonassen followed suit with a 11 and 12 result over Anup Sridhar, while the doubles pair of Eriksen and Hansen were briefly troubled in the second game by Diju and Rupesh Kumar, but sealed their side's win with a 14 and 19 result.

The Uber Cup saw a big upset, with Germany pulling off a 3-2 result over Hong Kong China. Although world No.3 Wang Chen put Hong Kong ahead with a three-game win over European champion Xu Huaiwen, the second and third singles let Hong Kong down.

However, China had no problems against Singapore, whipping them 3-0, with Zhang Ning opening the tie with a 18 and 18 result over Li Li.

India in last eight

1 May '06
Sendai: Anup Sridhar upset world No. 33 John Moody as India whitewashed New Zeland 3-0 to storm into the quarterfinals of the World badminton men’s team championship for the Thomas Cup here on Monday.

India, missing its number one shuttler Chetan Anand to injury, sealed the victory in an emphatic fashion with Sridhar, Arvind Bhat, and Nikhil Kanetkar winning the three singles matches in the five-match pre-quarterfinal tie.

The two inconsequential doubles matches were not played. India now take on Denmark, who reached the last eight stage after topping group C, for a place in the quarterfinals to be played in Tokyo from Wednesday.

National champion Sridhar, ranked 64, provided a perfect start for India with a 21-15, 21-9 mauling of Moody in the first singles in just 26 minutes, to take revenge for his loss to Moody at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Bhat then tamed newcomer Henry Tam 21-17, 21-5 to give a 2-0 lead to India.

Kanetkar, who replaced Anand and was playing in his first match of the championship, faced stiff challengefrom Craig Cooper but pushed his game one notch up in the final game for 21-13, 18-21, 21-10 victory in 40 minutes. PTI

India hold off German challenge

29 April 2006 (Read Raphael Sachetat's report)
Sendai (Japan): Rupesh Kumar and V Diju raised their game when it mattered most and won the last doubles tie as India overcame a gritty Germany 3-2 to move into the pre-quarterfinals of the Thomas Cup on Saturday.

India take on New Zealand in the pre-quarterfinals on Monday. The Kiwis finished at the bottom of Group B after losing both their league matches to Korea and Indonesia.

India began on the wrong note with World No. 24 Chetan Anand not in his elements against Bjoern Joppien and as the German tamed him 21-17, 21-12 and India had the worst possible start.

In the second match, Anup Sridhar too was stretched in the first game even though he snatched it from Conrad Hueckstaedt.

The German, however, soon returned to the win the second game. Anup finally went on to win the third game and the match 22-20, 14-21, 21-6.

Arvind Bhat, despite dropping the second game, kept the momentum going and his 21-14, 17-21, 21-16 win against Roman Spitko saw India snatching the lead with two doubles matches to go.

Thomas Kurien and Jaseel Ismail, however, forfeited the advantage as they tamely went down to Kristof Hopp and Ingo Kindervater 9-21, 16-21 and the Germans were back in contention at 2-2.

In the decider, Rupesh Kumar and V Diju kept their cool and never allowed any leeway to the German rivals Michael Fuchs and Spitko as they chalked out a straight game win 21-18, 21-12.
Indian coach Vimal Kumar gave credit to the singles winners but said Spitko was not at his best which helped his team to an extent.

The results: India beat Germany 3-2 (Chetan Anand lost to Bjoern Joppien 17-21, 12-21; Anup Sridhar beat Conrad Hueckstaedt 22-20, 14-21, 21-6; Aravind Bhat beat Roman Spitko 21-14, 17-21, 21-16; Thomas Kurien-Jaseel Ismail lost to Kristof Hopp-Ingo Kindervater 9-21, 16-21; Rupesh Kumar-V Diju beat Michael Fuchs-Roman Spitko 21-18, 21-12).

China whitewash India

28 April 2006
Sendai (Japan): Chetan Anand's brave fight against the World No 1 was the the only highlight for India who were thrashed 0-5 by defending champions China in their first league match of Thomas Cup badminton finals here on Friday.

Anand, ranked 24, gave a scare to Lin Dan as he snatched the second game but the champion
finally emerged unscathed 21-8, 21-23, 21-11 to win the first match of the tie.

From thereafter, it was a one-sided affair as China gave no further room to India and
stamped their supermacy, routing other players in straight games.

The doubles combination of Rupesh Kumar and V Diju went down 5-21, 16-21 to Fu Haifeng
and Cai Yun in the second match.

World no 9 Chen Jin got the better of national champion Anup Sridhar 21-14, 21-10 to seal the
tie in China's favour.

The scratch doubles combine of Thomas Kurien and Jaseel Ismail lost 6-21, 10-21 to Bo
Zhang and Guo Zhendeng in the inconsequential match.

Arvind Bhat went down 15-21, 10-21 in the last singles to Xia Xuanze.

India, who last qualified for the world team badminton Championship in 2000, would next
play Germany in their last league match on Saturday. Beating Germany would be the key for
India to reach the knock-out stage.

The results: Thomas Cup: Group A: China bt India 5-0 (Lin Dan bt Chetan Anand 21-8, 21-23, 21-11; Fu Haifeng/Cai Yun bt Rupesh Kumar/Diju V 21-5, 21-16; Chen Jin bt Anup Sridhar 21-14, 21-10; Zheng Bo/Guo Zhendong bt Thomas Kurian/Jaseel P. Ismail 21-6, 21-10; Xia Zuanze bt Arvind Bhat 21-15, 21-10).

Malaysia win Asian Zone title

Dev S Sukumar

Jaipur, 19 February: China had better beware. Malaysia is going to be a handful at the Thomas Cup finals in Japan later this year.

In an engrossing Asian Zone final here on Sunday, a youthful Malaysian contingent pulled off a win over South Korea to affirm themselves as the hottest competitors to holders China.

Misbun Sidek, Malaysia’s most famous badminton name, is staking out the territory, and he has China in his sights. Even before the final started, Misbun let it be known that he was grooming three players – Hafiz Hashim, Lee Chong Wei and Kuan Beng Hong – in different styles to counter the current international trend of all-round play. “I think we have a good chance against China for the Thomas Cup,” he said with quiet confidence.

The evidence was out against Korea. Lee Chong Wei destroyed All England runner-up Lee Hyun Il, Hafiz Hashim played a magnificent match against Park Sung Hwan, and Kuan Beng Hong clinched the title for them after both Malaysian doubles teams faltered.

The match of the tournament was Hafiz against Park. Having seen the first doubles go to Korea, Hafiz treated the crowd to a spectacular exhibition of badminton; his peculiar flicks at the net and graceful movement around the court giving glimpses of the talent that won him an All England title.

Park, though, pulled off a tight first game, as got sluggish towards the end. It looked like an easy second game for the Korean.

But Hafiz somehow kept apace, his trickery at the net catching the Korean time and again. It was finally down to the third game, and Hafiz rocketed ahead 13-2 as the exhausted Korean made error after error. A 21-7 final game gave the Malaysians a 2-1 lead, after which the Koreans equalized in the second doubles. It was finally left to the explosive Kuan Beng Hong, who reached the final of the Asian Badminton Confederation championships in Hyderabad last September, to finish off things for the Malaysians.

Earlier, India fell to Indonesia for the third place playoff, but Indian No.2 Arvind Bhat created a sensation by nailing Simon Santoso in straight games.

Placings: Thomas Cup: 1-Malaysia 2-Korea 3-Indonesia 4-India
Uber Cup: 1-Korea 2-Chinese Taipei 3-Singapore 4-Hong Kong

Anup fails to pull the plug

Dev S Sukumar

Jaipur, February 18: As Anup Sridhar stepped up to serve match point at 24-23, second game, the crowd held its breath. One point was all that he needed to nail Shong Seung Mo, the Olympic silver medallist, no less, in the third match of the Thomas Cup (Asian Zone) semifinal between India and Korea on Saturday.
And then Anup served high.

He'll probably be asked a hundred times why he chose that high serve when he knew Shon has one of the biggest smashes in the game. He'll probably ask that question of himself a thousand times. But it doesn't matter any more, because he served high, Shon smashed, went on to take the game, and destroyed the Indian national champion in the deciding game to see his country register a comfortable 3-0 verdict and enter the Asian Zone final.

Not that Anup's win might have made a big difference to the team's fortunes. India's best hope Chetan Anand, after his remarkable wins against the fancied Kendrick Lee (Singapore) and Ng Wei (Hong Kong) earlier, looked sluggish against Lee Hyun Il, the All England runner-up. He kept up the challenge briefly at the beginning of the match, but then succumbed to the Korean's big jump smashes.

The doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas, which pulled off a surprise win over Hong Kong on Friday, fell tamely to the superior firepower of Lee Jae Jin and Han Sung Hoon.

And then it was Anup's turn. Like Chetan, he had won both his matches leading up to the semifinal, and he matched Shon stroke for stroke by reducing the pace of the rally and not allowing the Korean to get in his big smashes. At 21-22, game point for Shon, a stroke of luck favoured the Indian -- a line call went his way -- and he went on to take the game.

The second was a thriller all the way. The Indian kept catching Shon with his deceptive flicks and half-smashes, and began to poke holes on the Korean's forehand side. He seemed to have sewn it up at 20-16, four match points.

But then he faltered, making two misjudgements at the baseline and serving high when he had to keep the shuttle low. Two more match points came and went, both on the high serve, and the Korean just about squeezed through the second game. The third was a washout, as Anup looked too disappointed to pose a challenge.

Indian Chief Coach Vimal Kumar could shake his head. "Anup couldn't serve low under pressure. He tried to hurry Shon at match point... we didn't expect to upset Korea, but it would have been good if we could've won a couple of matches."
Results:
S Korea bt India 3-0 (Lee Hyun Il bt Chetan Anand 21-13, 21-10; Lee Jae Jin/ Han Sung Hoon bt Rupesh Kumar/ Sanave Thomas 21-17, 21-12; Shon Seung Mo bt Anup Sridhar 22-24, 27-25, 21-10).

India enter finals; Indonesia survive Thailand scare

By Dev S Sukumar/ badmintonmania.com


Jaipur, February 17: India booked a place in the Thomas Cup finals with a surprisingly one-sided result over Hong Kong at the Asian Zone preliminaries in Jaipur on Friday. The Indian women, however, were overwhelmed by Singapore, who dashed their hopes of qualifying.

Advantaged by a scoring system that places more accent on skill than on stamina, India again set the pace when Chetan Anand caught world no.10 Ng Wei off-guard with his gentle flicks and double-action tosses. Once the breach had been achieved, Hong Kong were always staving off the attack. They equalised in the second match, but Indian national champion Anup Sridhar again showed far too much variety for Yohan Hadikusuma in the third singles game. The Indian doubles team of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas then buried Hong Kong's challenge with yet another surprise result.

The new 21-point scoring system has been the topic of much debate, and IBF Deputy President Punch Gunalan even called a press conference on Friday to defend it.

But late on Friday, an unprecedented disaster seemed ready to unfold as Thailand led 2-0 against Indonesia. Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat and bronze medallist Sony Dwi Kuncoro were both dumped in the singles, by Boonsak Ponsana and Poompat S respectively. Had Thailand clinched one more match, Indonesia would have been out of the Thomas Cup, and that too even without making the finals! Such a result would have led to an immediate debate on the scoring system, especially as Taufik has made his dislike for it public.

But Indonesia's doubles teams saved the day. Piloted by the crafty Christian Hadinata from the coaches' bench, Luluk Hadiyanto and Alvin Yulianto reduced the deficit to 1-2 and then Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan equalised at 2-2.

But the task was not done. It required the baby-faced Simon Santoso to hold his nerve against Peerasak W, which the youngster did quite easily, much to the relief of the Indonesian contingent, comprising of Hadinata, Rudy Hartono, Lius Pongoh, and other legends.

Indonesia thus topped Group B and will take on Group A toppers Malaysia in the semifinals of the Asian Zone. The other semis will pit Group C toppers India against Group D toppers Korea.

Indonesia's women, however, missed the bus by coming fourth in the group. Although they narrowly beat Chinese Taipei on Friday, they'd lost to Malaysia 2-3, while Chinese Taipei had beaten Malaysia 3-2.

Thomas Cup: India bt Hong Kong 3-2 (Chetan Anand bt Ng Wei 26-24, 21-19; Agus Hariyanto bt Arvind Bhat 21-12, 21-16; Anup Sridhar bt Yohan Hadikusuma 17-21, 21-18, 21-12; Rupesh Kumar/ Sanave Thomas bt Albertus Susanto / Wa Kwog Liu 11-21, 21-18, 21-10; Agus Hariyanto/ Yohan Hadikusuma bt V Diju/ Jaseel Ismail 21-15, 14-21, 21-17).

Indonesia bt Thailand 3-2: Boonsak Ponsana (Tha) bt Taufik Hidayat 22-20, 21-19; Poompat S (Tha) bt Sony Kuncoro 21-19, 13-21, 21-10; Luluk H/ Alven Y bt Sudket Prapakamol/ Patapol N 21-13, 21-19; Markis Kido/ Hendra Setiawan bt Songpol A/ Nitipong S 21-14, 21-15; Simon Santoso bt Peerasak W 21-13, 21-11)

Group A: 1-Malaysia 2-Iran 3-Pakistan 4-Nepal

Group B: 1-Indonesia 2-Thailand 3-Vietnam

Group C: 1-India 2-Hong Kong 3- Singapore

Group D: 1-Korea 2-Chinese Taipei 3-Sri Lanka



Uber Cup: Singapore bt India 5-0 (Li Li bt Aparna Popat 16-21, 21-13, 21-16; Xing Aiying bt Saina Nehwal 21-15, 19-21, 21-17; Jiang Yanmei bt Meenakshi 24-22, 21-8; Jiang Yanmei/ Li Yuija bt Jwala G/ Shruti K 21-12, 21-18; Xing Aiying/ Mulya Shinta bt Saina Nehwal/ Aparna Balan 21-14, 21-15)

Group Y: 1-Korea 2-Chinese Taipei 3-Malaysia 4-Indonesia 5-Iran

Group Z: 1-Hong Kong 2-Singapore 3-India 4-Thailand 5-Pakistan

Rising stars impress at press meet

Pallav Deka/ badmintonmania.com

THE setting was ideal — The Media Room. It was indeed a new experience for the players, officials and press involved with badminton in India, the first of its kind where players had a session with the press immediately after the day’s matches.

The most promising junior players of the country – P Kashyap, Saina Nehwal, Anand Pawar and Aditi Mutatkar – made a good impression on the first day of the Open championships. They all showed a lot of confidence and answered in style.

Coming into this chapter of the Senior Nationals with each one of them backed with impressive performances in the domestic tournaments in the year 2005, they were oozing with a lot of confidence on putting up a good show at the Nationals.

Kashyap and Saina, the current Junior National champions, have had a great year so far. They have not only dominated the junior scene but have shocked a few of the seniors. Kashyap was not expected to win the Senior Major Ranking Tournament in Indore but he did it in style – beating Chetan Anand, Thomas Kurian, Janish K and Abhinn Shyam Gupta on the way.

Saina on the other hand made headlines by shocking eight-time Senior National Champion Aparna Popat in the final of the Asian Satellite Championships held at Delhi. She has also had victories over the other top-ranked players of the country including Trupti Murgunde and BR Meenakshi. Mittal Sports Trust has identified her as an international prospect and is supporting her. She believes that with more international exposure and a personal coach she will do well in international events as well. Both Kashyap and Saina come into this tournament with impressive performances at the PSPB Inter-Unit Badminton Championships held at Chennai last fortnight and that makes them strong contenders for the Bangalore nationals.

Aditi Mutatkar’s story is interesting and inspiring in itself. After sustaining a career-threatening injury to her knee she had to undergo an ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) reconstruction. The comeback was not easy. She had to undergo rehabilitation — comprising various strengthening and stretching exercises, while fighting anxiety, depression and boredom from doing routine exercises day in and out. But she did overcome all that and after a few initial hiccups has started to show the talent and potential she possesses. It needs a lot of grit and determination to overcome an injury and perform. She has shown it all and her opponents need to beware of this gritty junior.

The fourth among the talented group is Anand Pawar. An aggressive player by nature he has registered creditable wins over senior players like Nikhil Kanetkar, JBS Vidyadhar and Utsav Mishra. Having shown a lot of promise in the last couple of years he reached the finals of two tournaments last season – the Asian Satellite at Delhi and the JRD Tata Memorial at Jamshedpur, and seems to be brimming with confidence.

He feels that as far as skill, speed, power and stamina is concerned he is on par with the seniors. Being accustomed to the conditions at the KBA and coming from badminton stock (being the son of Uday and Sujata Pawar) he is the player to watch.

All four players feel that the playing conditions and overall conduct of the tournament at this nationals are at par with any international tournament that they have participated. They feel that the ambience is good enough to bring out their best. They are appreciative of the concept of the press-player conference.