Testing time for probables

MUMBAI, June 1: The significance of the Amit Rathi Memorial All-India Grand Prix badminton tournament, that starts at the Cricket Club of In...

MUMBAI, June 1: The significance of the Amit Rathi Memorial All-India Grand Prix badminton tournament, that starts at the Cricket Club of India tomorrow, is not so much as in who wins it, but in who gains at the end of it.

There is a deep chasm between the top player and the rest in both men and women8217;s categories which makes the result a foregone conclusion. While No 1 and national champion Pullela Gopi Chand is only a few points ahead of No 2 Abhinn Shyam Gupta, the latter has never won against Gopi. And similar is the case in the women8217;s category where No 1 Aparna Popat leads the field with occasional challenge from former national champion Manjusha Kanwar. Thus both Gopi and Aparna should start as overwhelming favourites.

This tournament is one of the two that will form the basis for the team8217;s selection to the Commonwealth Games to be held in September at Kuala Lumpur. The second All-India Grand Prix will be held in Hyderabad from June 8-11 and the team will be announced after the BadmintonAssociation of India meeting on June 11.

This event, among the seven major events on the BAI calendar, will offer total prize money of Rs 4 lakh. The 32-strong men8217;s draw has eight qualifiers and the 20-strong women8217;s draw includes four qualifiers.

Former men8217;s national champion Rajeev Bagga, former women8217;s champions Sushila Kapadia and Shobha Mehta and current title-holder Aparna are among eight players who are to be felicitated by the Cricket Club of India CCI on June 5. The other four shuttlers to be honoured by CCI on the final day of the tournament are Devinder Mohan, Burjor Shroff, Prem Prashar and Hufrish Nariman.

CCI would also honour three of the game8217;s administrators 8212; Manubhai Shah, Avinash Wardekar and Vikram Bhat 8212; for their contribution towards the sport in Maharashtra.

Gopi opens proceedings tomorrow against Mitesh Hazarinush and is likely to stay till the end of the tournament on June 5.

Qualifying results final

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Men8217;s singles: Vijay K AP w/o S Kanna Mah; TarunChauhan Del bt Mahesh Wakkadekkar Mah 15-4, 15-5; Rohan Kapoor Pun bt Krishna Kotak Mah 15-4, 15-4; Murali Subramanyan Mah bt Premakumar Singh AP 15-1, 13-15, 8-11 conceded; Mitesh Hazarnish Mah bt Karan Modi Mah 15-11, 15-1; B Nagaraj AP bt K K Cheema Mah 15-11, 15-3; Behzaad Devadhwala Mah bt Anupam Singh Mah 15-12, 17-15; JBS Vidhyadhar bt Deepak Jeitley Mah 18-13, 15-3.

Men8217;s doubles: Kiran Modi/Suraj Thakur; Srishail/Joy T Anthony bt K K Cheema/Krishna Kotak Mah 15-2, 15-4; Kishu Daswani/S Makhija bt Shailendra Hanka/Ravi Saha Mah 15-4, 15-3; Harshad Tawde/Behzaad Devadhwala.

Seedings

Men8217;s singles: 1 P Gopi Chand, 2 Abhinn Shyam Gupta, 3 Nikhil Kanetkar, 4 Srikant Bakshi, 5 Sachin Ratti, 6 Anuj Gupta, 7 Ajit Wijetilak, 8 Mangrish Palekar.

Women8217;s singles: 1 Aparna Popat, 2 Manjusha Kanwar, 3 Pooja Parekh, 4 K Neelima Choudhary.