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Hyderabad, Dec 5: Semi-finalists in the men's section and quarter-finalists in the women's section were spotted on the second day of the f...

Written by Jayaram Sridhar
December 6, 1999 12:00 AM IST

3 min read

Hyderabad, Dec 5: Semi-finalists in the men’s section and quarter-finalists in the women’s section were spotted on the second day of the four-day Servo Indian Oil Asian Satellite badminton tournament, at Lal Bahadur Indoor Stadium today.

National champion P Gopi Chand, junior champion Chetan Anand, Ajit Wijetilak and Siddharth Jain entered the men’s semifinals, while top seed BR Meenakshi, G Jwala, Trupti Murgunde, Ch Deepthi, Ketki Thakkar, Divya Ramesh, PVV Lakshmi and Parul Priyadarshini qualified for the women quarterfinals.

Gopi Chand and Thomas Kurien were engaged in a 41-minute clash, and Gopi had to bring out all his experience to quell the Kurien’s challenge. He dribbled to perfection and with Kurien tossing the shuttle to a reasonable high, Gopi went for the kill with ease.

Gopi took the first game 15-9, but Kurien got off to a flying 9-0 start in the second. Nothing went right for Gopi, who had a heated argument with the service umpire when he was called for service fault. Like a truechampion, he bounced back by regaining his cool and composure. He wiped off the deficit by unleashing powerful cross court smashes and won 15-13.

RESULTS :

Men singles (QF): P Gopi Chand (Ind) bt Thomas Kurien (Ind) 15-9 15-13; Ajit Wijetilak (Ind) bt Anuj Gupta (Ind) 15-13 15-11; Chetan Anand (Ind) bt Rajeev Bagga (Ind) 15-13 15-11; Siddharth Jain (Ind) bt Joy Anthony (Ind) 15-12 15-12.

Men doubles (QF): Jaseel Ismail & Vincent Lobo (Ind) bt JBS Vidyadhar & Manoj Kumar (Ind) 15-7 11-15 15-9; Vinod Kumar & Rajeev Bagga (Ind) bt Ranasinghe & Gunaratne (SL) 15-3 15-2, Anuj Gupta & Thomas Kurien (Ind) bt Edirisinghe & Fernando (SL) 15-2 15-6, Markose Bristow & Vijaydeep Singh (Ind) bt Sempa Peruma & P Sunil (Ind) 15-4 15-1.

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Women singles (PQF): T Murgunde (Ind) bt Shruti Kurien (Ind) 11-7 11-2, PVV Lakshmi (Ind) bt K Geegange (SL) 11-3 11-4, B R Meenakshi (Ind) bt Shakeela Moosa (Mal) 11-0 11-2, Ketki Thakkar (Ind) bt Eleena Begum (Ban) 11-5 11-3, G Jwala (Ind) bt N Gayanthi (SL) 11-1 11-0, ParulPriyadarshini (Ind) bt Namalee Erandika (SL) 11-1 11-0, Ch Deepthi (Ind) bt Ayesha Khatoon Nuri (Ban) 11-1 11-2, Divya Ramesh (Ind) bt Shaeen Rasheed (Mal) 11-2 11-0.

Women doubles (QF): PVV Lakshmi & Archana Deodhar (Ind) bt Shaheen Rasheed & Shakeela Moosa (Mal) 15-5 15-0, BR Meenakshi & Ch Deepthi (Ind) bt M Radhika & Srilakshmi (Ind) 15-5 15-10, G Jwala & Shruthi Kurien (Ind) bt Sampada Shetye & Madhavi Kashikar (Ind) 15-0 15-11; Ketki Thakkar & T Murgunde (Ind) bt Elena Begum & Ayesha Katoon (Ban) 15-11 15-8.

Mixed doubles (semis): Vinod Kumar & Meenakshi (Ind) bt Mahbubbur Rab & Ayesha (Ban) 15-2 15-1; JBS Vidyadhar & PVV Lakshmi (Ind) bt Vincent Lobo & Archana Deodhar (Ind) 15-9 11-15 15-10.

Gade-Christensen tops: Peter Gade-Christensen won his first badminton World Grand Prix Finals titlein Brunei today, beating Marleve Mainaky of Indonesia 15-11, 15-3. In women’s singles, Ye Zhaoying beat world number one Dai Yun to capture her third Finals. She won 11-4, 6-11, 11-9.

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