Bareilly, Dec 24: Top seeds Pullela Gopi Chand and Manjusha Kanwar today won the men's and women's singles titles respectively of the all-India Gold Cup Grand Prix Badminton Tournament.Gopi Chand defeated Nikhil Kanetkar of Maharashtra 15-10 15-8. Some good smashes from Gopi were the striking feature of the match. Manjusha claimed the women's title playing at her aggressive best to defeat PVV Lakshmi (Andhra Pradesh) 11-3 11-6.
Earlier, Manjusha beat CH Deepti (AP) 11-8 11-5 and Lakshmi overcame Neelima Choudhary (AP) 11-9 12-13 11-8 in the semifinals played last night. Top seed Jaseel P Ismail (Kerala) and Vincent Lobo (Maharashtra) beat second seeded M Bristo and G Thomas (Kerala) 15-11 15-5 to win the men's doubles title. The top seeded pair had entered the final defeating D Amarnath and J Xavier 15-7 13-15 17-15 while M Bristo and G Thomas had to face V Vinod Kumar and R Mathews in the semi-final.
Top-seeded pair Manjusha Kanwar and Archana Deodhar (Maharashtra) overcame the challenge of MadhumitaBisht and Neelima Choudhary to win the women's doubles title 15-8 12-5 15-7.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.