No racket on court — Open & shut case for Gopi, Aparna

In women’s section Aparna Popat knocked out second seed Manujsha Kanwar 13-11, 11-2 to keep the title for the fourth year in running. The 27-year-old Indian Oil shuttler was erratic in the first set in which he conceded as many as five straight negative points before he could open his account.

However, Jain failed to hold on to the 5-0 lead and committed far too many unforced errors and allowed his rival to level the score 5-5. Thereafter, the two players settled down and produced some good rallies with the top seed running away with points through powerful smashes.

Gopi took control of the procedings and with his strokes, smashes and clever placements took the lead to 12-7 before taking the game 15-8 in 17 minutes. Contrary to the first game, Siddharth Jain repeatedly hit the net and conceded eight points to Gopi before scoring his first. With service changing hands thrice and Gopi hitting out, Jain opened his scoring then.

The Olympion then ruled the court and kept Jain dancing to his tune. But the youngster did not lose the heart as he too displayed some brilliant smashes and cross-court placements, which caught his rival on the wrong foot.

Gopi’s superiority was, however, never in doubt as he received no threat at any stage of the match. He took the second game in 27 minutes, but in between sufficient time was wasted with players going for change of shuttle more often than was expected. The chair umpire had to issue a warning to both.

But it was four-time champion Manjusha Kanwar, who surprised everyone with a flying start against Aparna Popat as the former ran up a 4-1 lead, taking full advantage of the defending champion’s erratic play. Popat hit the shuttle out twice and floundered at the net on quite a few occasions. When Manjusha committed two unforced errors, this allowed Popat open her account.

One beautiful placement and a clever drop close to the net earned two points for Popat but she was somewhat out of tune on the day. She sent her shuttles out which allowed Manjusha take a grip in the game with a 7-3 lead. Surprisingly, Manusha failed to capitalise on the advantage and hit he net three times in a row. With abrilliant backhand drop, Popat bounced back to level at 7-7 and then 10-10. At this juncture, Manusha conceeded three negative points and Popat seized the opportunity to take the game at 13-11, the whole process taking just 20 minutes.

Manjusha appeared to have lost heart in the second game right from the word go as she made too many unforced errors. This resulted in her conceeding an amazing 9-0 lead to Popat without a change of service even for once. The game lasted only seven minutes.

Jwala gutta and Shruti Kurien, the third seed combination of Andhra Pradesh shocked the top pair of PVV Laxmi (PSCB) and Madhumita Bisht (Rly) 15-13, 15-2 to wear the women’s doubles crown. Vincent Lobo (PSCB) and Madhumita Bisht (Rly) had last night won the mixed doubles title defeating Marcose Bristow (PSCB) and BR Meenakshi (Ktk) 15-5, 15-6.

GOPI HONOURED: Gopichand was felicitated by the Badminton Association of India for his achievements at the international and national level. The recognition from BAI, overdue for a long time, came on the eve of the finals here. Coach SM Arif expressed pleasure on Gopi’s felicitation but added he should be given a free hand for deciding in which tournaments he wants to play.