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 women’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 women’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 team’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.

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

Former men’s national champion Rajeev Bagga, former women’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 game’s administrators — Manubhai Shah, Avinash Wardekar and Vikram Bhat — 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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Men’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.

Men’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

Men’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.

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