Gopi, Aparna undisputed favourites

Gopi, Aparna undisputed favourites
Hari Hara Nandanan

Kochi, Feb 23: When Pullela Gopi Chand and Aparna Popat, seeded No 1 in the men's and women's singles of the Indianoil Servo National Badminton Championships here, said they expected ``tough fights,'' they were being modest about their strength.

The Indian Oil stars, who have hardly dropped any game leave alone match in the last two years either in the Nationals or in other tournaments in India, will be seeking their fourth and third straight titles respectively in the Nationals. They begin their campaign on February 26 in the open events after the 55th Inter-State Championship which will start at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium on Thursday.

In fact, Petroleum Sports Control Board could even afford to play in the Inter-State events without their stars, Gopi Chand and Aparna, in their ranks in their title chase on debut because such is the depth of quality in their teams for the Nationals.

In the men's Inter-state championship for the Rahimatoolah Cup, the draw is such that it could be a grim battle for a final berth between Kerala (South Zone champions) and Maharashtra (last year's champions and the current West Zone champions).

Maharashtra, depleted by the changeover of Kanetkar, Vincent Lobo and Vijay Lancy to PSCB, will field an experienced team but according to captain Bhushan Akut, ``a lot will depend on (former champion) Rajeev Bagga.''

If he wins his singles and doubles against Kerala (possibly), the match may be Maharashtra's but then Akut added the side suffered from the injury of Sanket Shetty, who was called for the National and later pulled out.

Qualifying results: Men singles: Roy Mathew (Rly) bt Tharun Chauhan (Del) 21-14; Praveen Ghalawat (Dle) bt Mayur Ghatnekar (Rly) 21-17; Amrish Shinde (Ry) bt Madhu (Ker) 21-10; S D S Krishna (AP) bt Sushanth Nedoodi (Mah) 21-11; Anna Sreenivasan (TN) bt Ruthuparna Kulkarni (Mah) 21-16; Gaurav Singh (Del) bt Antony Jacob (Ker) 21-1; Mangresh Palekar (Mah) bt Manmeet Singh (Del) 21-17; Anoop Sridhar (Kar) bt Vijay Sharma (Del) 21-15.

Qualifiers (women's doubles): K Sailaja and M Srujana (AP); D Swetha (AP) and Neelima Choudhary (PSCB).

Mixed Doubles: Radhika/Sreekrishnan; Tanuja Beegum/Jaison Xavier; Karthikadam/Mayur Ghatnekar; J Sushamanjali/L Prakash Rao.