India have little to lose

World No 1 Peter Gade Christensen will spearhead second-seeded Denmark’s campaign to wrest the prestigious trophy from the Asians for the first time in its 52-year history and with Olympic champion Paul-Eric Hoyer-Larsen, the third best singles player in the world, in their ranks, the Danes look in best shape to achieve their dream after dominating the European Championships last month.

Though the competition will be of much higher standard, Denmark look set to top their group and take a place in the semifinals along with Malaysia, unless Korea, with two very strong doubles pairs in their ranks, manage to upset their applecart.

India will be looking up to four-time National champion Gopi Chand to cause ripples, but the absence of India No 3 Abhinn Shyam Gupta and the first choice trio of Ajit Wijetilek, Vincent Lobo and Jose George has made their position unenviable.

Gupta’s injury-enforced pull out will be the biggest setback for India, ranked 7th-8th with Sweden, as they hope to win atleast one match unlike last time they qualified in 1988 when they lost all their matches despite the presence of the legendary Prakash Padukone, the 1980 All-England champion.

The Allabahad-based Gupta’s long-drawn toss-and-drop style would have been a big help in the third singles. The lanky shuttler was in tremendous form as he won three exhausting matches, the shortest of which lasted 98 minutes, which helped India finish third behind China and Korea in the Asian Zonal tournament in Delhi, and qualify for the finals.

Sidharth Jain, the third-best rated Indian in the World rankings, will fill in the breach and play third singles with Gopi Chand and Nikhil Kanetkar, who will have to show more consistency than in qualifiers, appearing in the first two.

Jain played in a couple of matches in Delhi — including a tough one against Ji Xinpeng of China in the semi-finals, and has since then shown superb form.

He won the French Open title last month, which soared his rankings from 105 to 67 in the latest list. If he manages to play consistently — and with Kanetkar chipping in with his act, India could cause a minor upset by beating Korea.

Korea have two weak singles players in Lee Hyun Li and Sun Ho Hwang while their top singles player Seung Mo Shon is though currently ranked higher than Gopi Chand, had lost to the Indian in the league match at Delhi.

Their doubles pairs of Kim Dong Moon and Ha Tae Kwon, the second best in the World, and the next ranked Lee Dong Soo and Sung Yong Yoo look too good for the Indians.

India will take on hosts Malaysia in their second league match on Sunday and Korea on May 16. But before that, the Koreans will face Malaysia in a needle contest on Friday which could virtually decide the semi-final line-up from the Blue Group.

Holders Indonesia, China, England and Sweden comprise the Yellow Group.

Powered by Commonwealth champion Wong Choon Han, the World No 4, Ong Ewo Hock, Yong Hock Kin and Roslin Hashim, Malaysia will be bidding for a repeat of history after winning their last title at home in 1992.

Led by the experienced Rashid Sidek, Malaysia looks a well balanced side and with good support from the fanatical home crowd, which is expected to fill Putra Stadium to the brim, the Malaysians can hope to make it to the semi-finals — the title, however, looks a little distant at the moment.

But the Malaysians are fierce competitors at home and could cause a couple of upsets. And with no clear favourites as China, Denmark and defending champions all look capable of beating each other, the Malaysians would be hard to beat once they reach the last four.

Against them, Korea will hope to win atleast one singles match through Seung Shon Mo and then capitalise on their doubles superiority to cause an upset.