Gopi Chand, Abhinn stand tall among Indian ruins

Gopi Chand, Abhinn stand tall among Indian ruins
R RAMACHANDRAN

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 17: Pullela Gopi Chand and Abhinn Shyam Gupta were the only saving grace. But the two cannot make the entire team. The Indian men realised it the hard way in their game against Korea, losing 2-3, in the BLP-Asian Zone qualifiers for the Thomas/ Uber Cup World Badminton Team Championship at the IG Indoor Stadium here on Thursday. But all is not lost for the Indians as yet. They have a tie on hand against Singapore on Friday and a win should make them the second qualifiers from Group Y for the semi-finals that follow.

But it was a different case with the Indian girls. They reached the dead-end of their second stage campaign after the second defeat, this time 0-5 to Chinese Taipei. The Indians will now take on Hong Kong tomorrow in their last tie.

Gopi started on a rousing note taking complete control of the situation against Seung Shon-Mo. What followed after Gopi's game was to be expected, the world No 2 Korean doubles pair making mincemeat of the Indian duo Ajit Wijetilek pairing Vincent Lobo to and Nikhil Kanetkar fighting a losing battle against Hyun Lee. The world No 3 Korean pair took just 35 minutes to demolish the second Indian pair of Markose Bristow and Vijaydeep Singh and with it the Koreans wrested the winning lead.

However, the never-say-die attitude of Abhinn saw him coming back from the brink to restore some sanity to the Indian game. His Korean opponent Sun Ho Hwang was astounded by the the 20-year-old Indian's technique, like the Japanese yesterday.

After the mauling they received from top-seed Indonesians yesterday, one thought the Indian girls will not make hash of things against Taipei. But the girls struggled against the superbly fit Taipei unit. What made difference to their game plan was the way each one of the Taipie girls kept the shuttle in play for a longer period to force the Indians into errors.

With far better reach, they had the added advantage of speed and agility which, when combined with all-court coverage, caught the Indians often on the wrong foot. The only exception, however, was Aparna Popat and Manjusha Kanwar, who took a game each off their opponents. But for them, the rest failed to put even a semblance of fight.
Results
Uber Cup (Group X): Chinese Taipei bt India 5-0 (Chi Chia Huang bt Aparna Popat 11-8 5-11 11-5; Lin Ya Chan bt BR Meenakshi 11-9 11-2; Yu Chin Chien bt Manjusha Kanwar 11-6 3-11 11-9; Lin Hsui Chien/ Hsing Wen Cheng bt PVV Lakshmi/ Madhumita Bisht 15-2 15-11; Min Hui Tsai/ Chin Li Chen bt Manjusha Kanwar/ Shruti Kurien 15-5 15-5); Hong Kong bt Indonesia 3-2 (Wan Ting Ling bt Lidya Djaelawijay 3-11 13-10 13-11; Wai Chee Koon lost to Ellen Angelina 6-11 8-11; Chen Wang bt Yuli Marfuah 6-11 11-7 11-4 Wai Chee Koon/ Mei Mei Chan lost to Nathanael Eliza/ Deana Lomban 4-15 1-15; Wan Ting Ling/ Chen Wang bt Etty Tantri/ Cynthia Tuwankotta 8-15 15-0 15-11.
Group Y: Korea bt Singapore 5-0 (Hyung Ji Kim bt Fatimah Lim Kumin 11-1 11-2; Won Kyung Lee bt Luxi Xiao 11-2 11-7; Ran Kyeung bt Fan Li 11-3 11-2; Min Kyung Ran and Jae Hee Chung bt Lux Xiao/ Li Li 15-0 15-0; Sun Jin Si/ Yeong Kyung Jung bt Fan Liu/ Muxi Rong 15-7 15-9); Japan bt Thailand 3-2 (Yasuko Mizui lost to Sujitra Ekmongkolpa 10-13 11-8 7-11; Kanako Yonekura bt Sathinee Chankrachan 11-3 11-1; Takako Ida bt Nucharee Teekhatraku 11-7 11-3; Yoshiko Iwata/ Haruko Matasuda lost to Sujitra Ekmongkolpa/ Saralee Thunthongka 13-15 15-17; Chikako Nakayama/ Hiromi Yamada bt Sathinee Chankrachan/ Nucharee Teekhatraku 15-8 15-7
Thomas Cup (Group Y): Korea bt India 3-2 (Seung Mo Shon lost to P Gopi Chand 10-15 15-13 9-15; Dong Moon Kim/ Tae Kwon Ha bt Ajit Wijetilek/ Vincent Lobo 15-10 15-0; Hyun Il Lee bt Nikhil Kanetkar 15-6 15-5; Dong Soo Lee/ Yong Sung You bt Markose Bristow/ Vijaydeep Singh 15-5 15-10; Sun Ho Hwang lost to Abhinn Shyam Gupta 15-8 15-17 8-15).