Aparna has potential to make top 10

Though our girls got bronze and the men silver, I feel our women, with a little luck, could actually have pulled off gold. Remember, we lost only to Malaysia in both sections. And in women, we were actually better than Malaysia. It is just that Neelima lost to Law Pei Pei, an upcoming player, who is ranked lower than the Indian. Obviously, the inspiration of playing at home and the crowdsupport carried the day for the local girl. On the other hand, Neelima played in all ties which may have made her tired. That is why I emphasise so much on fitness.

If we had won that singles, we would have been through 3-2 instead of losing 2-3. Doubles, I still feel, is our main weakness when it comes to team events. Once we get a good pair it will be tough to beat us in Commonwealth team events and we will do better elsewhere also.

Aparna lost only to Kelly Morgan. But frankly, I am still not happy with her play. She is capable of getting into the top 10 and even higher, but right now she tends to give away easy points and has huge swings in her play. She often win the first game easily and then loses the second miserably. When you can win a match in two games, there is no reason why it should be allowed to get into three. That way you are eating into your reserves.

The win that gave me most satisfaction was over England in the women’s team event and I frankly did not expect any problems with Walesor Scotland. That’s the way it turned out. I was happy that Manjusha Kanwar at third singles is doing well. She was unlucky to lose to Kelly Morgan in the singles individuals early. Madhumita, PVV Laxmi, Archana Deodhar and even Deepti played their parts well and I hope the girls instead of being happy with the bronze will strive for more in the future.

As for the men’s section, Gopi Chand was not stretched much. Nikhil Kantekar is one who impressed with tenacity and Abhinn Shyam Gupta came good when it mattered most against Peter Knowles, a much more experienced and higher ranked player. That gave us a great win over England and New Zealand was always going to be easy.

In the league, we had easy ties including the one against Scoltland which was supposed to be our main rivals. Again the reason why we were seeded lower than the Scots was because our players are lower ranked in the world. I feel Gopi is good enough to be among top 20 if not lower. Kanetkar is also much better than no.90.