NEWS
SCHEDULES
COLUMNS
PREVIOUS TOURS
OTHER SPORTS
STATISTICS
INTERVIEWS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

The week in Indian sports

BADMINTON
India return empty-handed from Thomas Cup

Kuala Lumpur, May 15: After successfully qualifying for the Thomas Cup after a gap of 12 years, the depleted Indian team could not pull off any major upset at the championships. Going into the tournament, the team had lost the services of four of its leading players - - Abhinn Shyam Gupta, Ajit Wijetilak, Vincent Lobo and Jose George due to injuries or illness. All four were part of the ten-member team that had qualified for the finals after the qualification rounds in Delhi in February.

The expectations weren't very high keeping in mind the injuries to the top players as well as the quality of the field on display, which included the powerhouses of world badminton such as China, Indonesia and Denmark. The last time the Indian team played in Kuala Lumpur was during the Commonwealth Games in 1998, when they won two silver and two bronze medals. On the eve of the competition, Prakash Padukone , executive president of the Badminton Association of India said, "It will be a good opportunity for the youngsters to rub shoulders with the best in the world. They can play freely without any pressure for they have nothing to lose."

India began their campaign against fancied Denmark. As expected, India went down tamely to the Danes, losing by a margin of 5-0. Pulella Gopichand was expected to push world number one Peter Gade in the first match of the tie but the national champion was outclassed in straight games 15-1, 15-6. Things didn't improve much in the doubles as the Danish pair of Hansen and Lars Paaske dispatched Vijaydeep Singh and Markose Bristow in straight games as well 15-6, 15-4. Nikhil Kanetkar, who had the responsibility of playing the second singles, was no match for veteran Paul Erik-Hoyer Larson in the third match and went down tamely as well in straight games 15-7, 15-7. With the tie over, the Danes did not let up and in the second doubles, Jaseel Ismail and George Thomas were no match for Jesper Larsen and Jens Eriksen who savaged them 15-5 , 15-5 on 32 minutes. The rout was completed by world number nine Kenneth Jonassen, who defeated Siddharth Jain 17-16 and 15-9. Jain was the most impressive Indian player on the day and made his opponent run all over the court to earn points. However, after running the Dane close in the first game, the Indian ran out of steam and lost the second.

The Indian performance against Malaysia in their next tie was much better. After his uninspiring performance against Peter Gade, Gopichand came out firing in the first match against Wong Choong Haan. In a closely fought first game, he held game point at one stage but was unable to keep up the momentum and Wang took it 17-14. The national champion though did not give up and took the second game 17-14. However, Hann had more gas left for the third game and he coasted through to win it 15-1.

Inspired by Gopi's performance, the Indian doubles combination of Vijaydeep Singh and Markose Bristow combined beautifully to win the first game of their match against Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wang Wah , 15-7. However, the Malaysians bounced right back and shut out the Indian pairing 15-2 and 15-1 in the next two games. The second singles player for India, Nikhil Kanetkar too came up with a better showing than his first outing but lost his match to Yong Hock Kin 15-9 , 17-14. With the tie over at this stage the Malaysian doubles combination of Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock made it 4-0 for the hosts with a convincing 15-6 , 15-3 win over Jaseel Ismail and George Thomas. Sidharth Jain won India their first match of the week with a facile 15-10, 5-15, 15-4 win over M. Roslin in the inconsequential fifth match of the rubber.

In their final league tie against Korea, the Indians began in contrasting fashion to their earlier efforts. Gopichand gave the team a 1-0 lead with a stellar performance against the top ranked Korean player Shon Seung Mo. Gopi was in excellent form and did not allow the Korean to play his natural aggressive game. The strategy paid off and the Indian took the match 15-7, 15-7. However, the national champion's lion-hearted effort did not rub-off on his teammates as they stumbled to four consecutive defeats after that.

An injury to Vijaydeep Singh forced a change in the first doubles combination and Markose Bristow and Jaseel Ismail were ravaged 15-0, 15-8 by the Korean pairing of Lee Dong Soo and and Yoo Yong Sung in only 19 minutes. Lee Hyun Li demolished India number two Nikhil Kanetkar in 40 minutes 15-12 , 15-5. The formidable pair of Ahn Jae Chang and Kim Dong Moon were too good for the scratch Indian pair of Chetan Anand and Sachin Ratti who were brushed aside 15-2, 15-8 in a match lasting 27 minutes.

Siddharth Jain could not sustain the form he had shown in the first two ties and lost to Park Tae sang in straight games.

The Indian team thus finished a disappointing, though not unexpected, campaign in Kuala Lumpur with only two wins to show from their 15 matches in the week. However, the team was up against the very best talent in the badminton world and could not be expected to cause any major upsets. Qualifying for the Thomas cup after a 12-year gap was an achievement in itself and the experience of having competed in the big league is bound to help the development of the sport in the country.

GOLF
Jyoti Randhava second in China Open

Shanghai, May 21: Jyoti Randhawa played a gallant final round of five under par 67 which enabled him to finish second behind England's Simon Dyson in the Volvo China Open golf tournament at the Shanghai Silport Golf Club course last week. The Indian Open winner, who finished with a total of 12 under par 276, pocketed 44,250 dollars for his creditable performance.

In a dramatic finish, England's Simon Dyson sank an eight-foot par putt against Randhawa for his second consecutive title on the Davidoof tour after winning in Macau last week.

Randhawa, who started with a five-stroke deficit, managed four birdies in the first six holes, including three successive birdies from the fourth hole onwards. Another birdie on the 14th hole enabled him to inch even closer to Dyson. Dyson was in a spot of bother as he initiated the par-five 18th hole with a wayward drive which landed in the water hazard. But after a drop, Dyson recovered with an immaculate approach shot and then two putted to claim the top prize of $72,000. Dyson, who concluded at 275, shot a one-under 71 in the final round to stave off a tough resistance from Randhawa.

Randhawa began the tournament with an impressive round of three-under 69 to share 11th spot with four other players. On the second day he stormed into contention for the tournament with a fine four-under par 68 to leap by eight spots and moved to joint third place at the half-way mark of the tournament. However, he was unable to keep up the momentum on the third day and shot an even par round of 72 to finish on fifth spot going into the final round. He began the final round five strokes off the pace and almost made up the deficit before Dyson shut him out in a tense showdown.

The other Indians in the tournament could not manage to make an impression on the proceedings. Going into the final day Amandeep Johl was in 22nd position, the best effort by an Indian barring Randhawa. Arjun Atwal finished in 37th position, with a total of 217 on the third day. Gaurav Ghei, who finished fifth last week at the Macau Open was on seven over 223 to be completely out of contention being into the final round. Among those who missed the cut were Amritinder Singh, Amit Dube, Harmeet Kahlon, Digvijay Singh, Kanwar Sekhon and Vivek Bhandari.

SHOOTING
Samaresh wins free pistol event

Poland, May 21: Samaresh Jung won the free pistol title at the Wroslaw Day's cup competition in Poland last week. Deepali Deshpande won the women's air rifle event.

Samaresh shot 553 and Ved Prakash 551 in the qualifying rounds to finish fourth and fifth respectively. In the final, which is treated as a separate event, Samaresh shot 99.9 to grab the title. Ved Prakash finished fifth.

A.P Subbiah and T.C. Pallangappa won the silver and bronze respectively in the free rifle three-position event , shooting 97.4 and 95.4 in the final. Pallangapa at 1148, had a better score than Subbiah (1133) in the preliminaries. In the same event, Dilip Sawant managed 1125 points and failed to qualify for the final.

In the women's rifle event , Deepali Deshpande compiled 103.3 in the final round to win, ahead of her better-rated Indian teammate Anjali Vedapathak, who could manage only the seventh place with a score of 100.5. Anjali had finished first in the qualifying round with 395, with Deepali as second with 392. Suma Dixit finished fifth in the final at 101.2 after having come sixth in the qualifying round with a score of 388. Kuheli Ganguly could not make the final with a score of 380. In the sports pistol junior event, Pamba Tamang secured the second position with a tally of 566 points.

TENNIS
Megha Vakharia wins ITF title

Bombay, May 19: Fifteen-year-old Megha Vakharia won the ITF women's $20,000 circuit Bank of Baroda second leg in Bombay last week. The youngster defeated first leg winner and number two seed Sonal Phadke 6-4, 6-4. This was Vakharia's first title on the senior circuit. She completed the triumph over Phadke, who was in red-hot form, after winning the first leg in Indore the previous week, in 75 minutes.

This is Megha's first title from three seniors events. Last month she reached the quarter-finals of the ITF women's $10,000 event, lost in the qualifying round of a similar event the week after and then won this leg. On her way to the title in Bombay, she beat top seeded Archana Venkataraman and number seven Shalini Thakur and then capped it off by beating the second seed in the final.

Megha earned $650 for her triumph while Sonal had to be content with $325 although she did win the P.S. 'Dada' Khanolkar Scholarship for her progress this year.

Megha's triumph over top-seed Archana Venkataraman in the quarter-final was possibly the match that out her on course for victory in the tournament. In just 65 minutes she had demolished the top-seed 6-1,6-4. She was in great touch on the day, whipping he smooth forehand to open up the court and rampaging home double-handed backhand winners past Archana, one of the circuit's most tenacious players.

Megha had shown glimpses of her potential at the Asia-Oceania World Junior (under-16) tennis qualifying tournament in the week before the Bombay event. The Indian team of Vakharia , Isha Lakhani and Samrita Sekhar finished sixth , one rung above the boys' team.

In their quarter-finals against second-seeded Chinese Taipei, Megha was the only Indian player to stretch the opponents to a three-setter when she took Su-Wei Hsieh to three sets before going down.