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HITS & MISSES
Hopes beliedK DATTA
Pullela Gopichand
It was with high hopes that coach Gopichand took his band
of Indian players to Birmingham to take part in last
month’s US$ 1 million All England tournament, an event
only two Indians have won . All England has a place of its own
in the world of badminton. Only two Indians have won this
oldest of badminton
tournaments, created
in 1899. Prakash
Padukone was the first
to win it in 1980, the
year when he was
named the world’s No.
1. It took a long 21
years for Pullela
Gopichand to become
the second Indian to
win the competition. For all that, the one prize that India was now waiting for was the All England at Arena Birmingham in March. Disappointingly, no Indian could go beyond the quarterfinal stage, with PV Sindhu, seeded fifth, falling to 10th seeded Korean 16-21, 22-20, 18-21 in the first round of the women’s singles. “It was not my day,” said Sindhu after the close fight. Saina Nehwal, 28, admired for her mental toughness, went down to Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu-ying in their quarter-final match, 15-21, 19-21. The Indian challenge ended with Kidambi Srikanth losing his quarter-final match to Japan’s Kento Momota.21-17,11-21, 21-12. Saina has returned home to get treated for gastroenteritis which resulted .in her withdrawal from the Switzerland Open tournament. For the record, the 24-year-old Momota became the first Japanese man to win the 109-year-old All England. Defeating Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen 21-11, 15-21, 21-15 in the final, the elated Japanese 24-year-old said .it was a victory which made him “super happy.” After the failure of our players to rise up to expectations at the All England, Sai Praneeth, ranked 22 in the world, by way of compensation, reached the final of the Switzerland Open at Basel where he lost to the top-seeded Shi Yuqi of China, 21-19, 18-21, 12-21. In the Praneeth had stunned the reigning Olympic champion Chen Long, also of China, in straight games, 21-18, 21-13. Creating sensation
Prajnesh Gunneswaran
Playing in his first ATP Masters 1000
tournament as a qualifier, Prajnesh
Gunneswaran created a sensation
when he defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili
of Georgia in the second round of the
Indian Wells, California, USA, last
month, It was the 29-year-old
Gunneswaran’s first victory over a
world top 20 player. This less than a
month after he made news by being
included among the world’s top 100. The victory over
Basilashvili has raised the Indian’s world standing from 97 to
84 at a venue appropriately called Indian Wells... Winning the fortnight-long tournament was Austria’s Dominic Thiem, 25, who defeated Roger Federer of Switzerland in the final, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, to deny the 37-year-old Swiss super star, one of the game’s greatest players of all time, a record sixth title victory at Indian Wells. He had concluded his 100th title earlier at Dubai. Bianca Andreescu, an 18-year-old Canadian girl born of Romanian parents, a wild card whose entry was recommended by the sponsors who were impressed by her talent, won the women’s singles title, defeating her far more experienced German opponent Angelique Kerber, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Andreescue’s winner’s cheque of US$1,354,010 made the teen-ager an instant millionaire. Camouflage caps a strong statement
MS Dhoni Distributes Camouflage Caps To His Teammates As India Pay Homage To Pulwama Martyrs
If it were the camouflage
caps which made news the
other day at Ranchi, there’s no
stopping people from sporting
an Abhinandan Varthaman-style
mustache currently the rage
among the country’s youth.
What better stage than the
upcoming World Cup to sport
such a mustache! The
disappointment of the defeat of
the Indian team in the One Day
International series against the
visiting Australians has been
forgotten as the wise men of
cricket are searching for the
right man to bat at No. 4.. While a black armband may have sufficed, sporting the camouflage military caps seemed to have the approval of the government authorities, the Indian cricket board and of course the International Cricket Conference. That Pakistan has protested the gesture was perhaps expected but is also puzzling, since it has declared that it does not support acts of terrorism. |