Abhinn knocked out
of French Open

Defending champion and Indian national champion Abhinn Shyam Gupta was knocked out in the second round of the men's singles in the $10,000 French Open badminton championships in Paris on Saturday.

Abhinn, who defeated Englishman Aaamir Ghaffar in the first round 6-8, 7-5, 7-3, 7-0, ran into upcoming Chinese sensation Wu Yugang, a right-hand player.

But all credit must go to the Indian who, as usual, started off slowly, losing the first two games. He came roaring back with a sensational defensive game to win the next. He then saved three match-points and equalled at 7-7, only to see a dead-tired Chinese walk away with the match 7-2, 7-1, 3-7, 8-7 in a 47-minute thriller, the likes of which have hardly been seen in this tournament, into its 16th edition.

It was real heartbreak for Abhinn, who moved up to 42 in the rankings, with a good performance at the All England. He did everything possible in the last game, which went on for 23 minutes, as service changed hands repeatedly, with the Indian diving all over the court to retrieve some bullet-like smashes from his opponent.

"Bravo, bravo, fantastique," yelled the crowd, as they tried to coax the courageous Indian into toppling the Chinese. However, in the end, luck deserted the Indian as the Chinese player got lucky with three net-cord points.

"I badly wanted to defend my title. A win here would have put me in the top 35 rankings and then I could have gone on from there. I played well and am happy with my result at the All England and my first match here," said Abhinn.

"I knew that by the fifth game Wu would have been too tired out. That is my game and my style, but today I was not lucky. So it is back to the drawing board now in practice sessions back home," added the dejected Indian champion, who flies back on Monday after a tiring two-month tour of Europe.

But there was good news for the Indian squad, as Nikhil Kanetkar and Aparna Popat moved into the singles quarter-finals.

Popat, a French Open champion in 1999, beat Kate Riddler of Wales easily in first round and then accounted for Russian shuttler Anastassia 7-1, 4-7, 7-4, 7-0 in regal style. She now plays Chinese shuttler Xia Xinfeng.

"My next match is a tough one. Xia does not play all that much on the circuit but then the Chinese do not send any player out unless she is world class. So I will have my work cut out for me in the match," she said.

Kanetkar beat Mathew Shuker of England in three easy games and then played brilliantly to down German Mike Joppien 7-2, 7-0, 6-8, 7-4.

Kanetkar, who reached the Scottish Open final last December, was twice on match-point in the third game at 6-4 but did not exploit the lead.

He now plays second seed Bobby Millroy of Canada, a player he has defeated in the past.

Chetan Anand and Trupti Murgunde lost their main draw first round matches, but the doubles pairs of Diju/Sanave in the men's and Jwalla Gutta/Shruti Kurien, in the women's section, did well to move into the second round.

UNI