Kanetkar stuns Gupta

Kochi, Dec 17: Nikhil Kanetkar, an 18-year-old BPL-Prakash Academy product, played probably the best match of his short career in bringing ...

Kochi, Dec 17: Nikhil Kanetkar, an 18-year-old BPL-Prakash Academy product, played probably the best match of his short career in bringing down second seed Abhin Shyam Gupta of Air-India 15-10, 15-9 on the way to the men8217;s singles final of the BPL All India Senior Masters Badminton Tournament at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium here today.

Giving a good display of court craft, Kanetkar, who also works with Air-India on contract as trainee sportsman, put all his defeats at the hands of Gupta in the last couple of years behind and earned a meeting with top seed P Gopichand of AP in the final.

Top seed Aparna Popat of Karnataka will meet second seed Neelima Choudhary of Air-India in the women8217;s singles final. Aparna required only 18 minutes to thrash Nirmala Kotnis of Air-India 11-0, 11-1. Neelima took a while to settle down but once she did, she faced no problems in routing Larisa Sadarangani of Air-India 11-5, 11-7 in 30 minutes.

In the men8217;s singles quarterfinals, Abhin Shyam Gupta of Air India had a tough match against Kerala8217;s Jaison Xavier, who took the first game at 10. But in the second Abhin routed Jaison and won at love. Jaison could not keep up his good work and lost 11-15.

In the men8217;s doubles, George Thomas and Markose Bristow of Kerala upset the top seed pair of Jaseel Ismail and Vijaydeep Singh 15-12, 15-7 to enter the final.

Results

Men8217;s Singles QF: Gopichand AP bt Srikant Bakshi Railways 17-15, 15-3; Abhin Shyam Gupta Air-India bt Jaison Xavier Kerala 10-15, 15-0, 15-11; Sushant Saxena UP bt Mangrish Palekar Rail 14-17, 15-6, 15-9; Nikhil Kanetkar AI bt Amrish Shinde Mah 15-7, 15-5.

Women8217;s singles QF: Nirmala Kotnis AI bt Pooja Parekh Rail 11-7, 11-1; Larisa Sadrangani AI bt Manju T Abraham Kar 11-2, 11-4; Aparna Popat Kar bt CM Deepthi Rail 11-2, 11-8; Neelima Choudhary AI bt Nazneen K Mah 11-1, 11-1. Men8217;s doubles QF: Jaseel /Vijaydeep bt Ajit/Sidharth Jain 15-2, 15-9; Markose Bristow/George Thomas w/o Davinder Dhillon/ Deepak Amarnath. Roy Mathew/Anirudh Rao bt Bhushan Akut/Amrish Shinde 15-11, 15-9, Vinodkumar/Rajeev Bagga bt Mangrish Palekar/Harish Chandra 15-8, 15-9. SF: Markose Bristow/ George Thomas bt Jaseel Ismail/ Vijaydeep Singh 15-12, 15-7, Rajiv Bagga/Vinodkumar bt Roy Mathew/Anirudha Rao, 15-3, 15-2. Women8217;s doubles SF: Madhumita/Sindhu bt Neelima Choudhary/Swetha 15-8, 15-1; Nazneen/Firoza bt Madhavi/Meenakshi 16-18, 17-16,15-9.