Nishad Dravid records impressive victory

Former Asian champion Dinesh Khanna, who represents the ministry of sports in the selection committee of Badminton Association of India (BAI) described Nishad as the most talented boy, who has every thing in himself required for a top-class player. Rohan Castolino, who had won the sub-junior crown, got the better of Gaurav Singh of Air India 15-12, 15-10 to enter the second round, where he takes on Bahniman Bora of Assam. Delhi’s Davinder Dhillon was stretched the full distance by R.A.Anish of Kerala before the former won 15-12, 10-15, 15-5. Similarly, Nimesh Goyal of Madhya Pradesh had to struggle to get past Rohan Kapur of Punjab 8-15, 15-9, 15-12. In women’s singles, Susan Rajan of Kerala rallied to beat Parul Rawat of Delhi while Isha Sharma of Chandigarh got the better of Poonam Patial of Himachal.

Gopichand not to play in French Open: Pullela Gopichand will not play in the French Open badminton, the Badminton Association of India said.Gopi will instead be playing the Swiss Open, which incidently falls on the same dates.