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Gopichand goes down fighting

Indian national champion Pullela Gopichand went down fighting in three games to China's Xia Xuanze in the final of the Yonex German Open Badminton championships, a two-star event, in Duiburg, yesterday.

Xuanze, the Dutch Open champion - ranked 29th in the world, won 15-3, 13-15, 15-4, and dashed the hopes of the 50th ranked Indian becoming the first from the country to win a Grand Prix event after Prakash Padukone. The Chinese had also beaten Gopichand in this year's All-England Championships.

The Indian was too tentataive in the first game and waited for the Chinese to take the initiative. Xuanze won the first game at 15-3 and raced to a 8-0 lead in the second. However, Gopichand then started moving his opponent around and levelled the score at 12. The tiring Chinese couldn't cope with the pace and lost the second.

Gopichand committed too many unforced errors again in the decider, allowing his opponent to take his second title in two weeks.

For Gopichand, it was a fruituful tournament as he won the 'Fair Play' award. This was his best showing, after finishing runner-up at the Indian Open Grand Prix, in New Delhi in February 1997.

On Saturday, Gopichand stormed into the final defeating James Chua of Malaysia 16-17, 15-0, 15-6 in the semi-finals. James had upset the tournament's top seed John Hadi Kusuma of Indonesia and German No. 1 Oliver Pongratz in his earlier matches. In the quarter-final, Gopi accounted for Mark Constable of England at 15-6, 15-4.

Nikhil Kanetkar, who had a brilliant run in the tournament, pulled out during his quarter-final against Xui Xiao of China after losing the first game 5-15. It was learnt that he had pulled a groin muscle pull during his earlier match which forced him to concede the tie.

Indian women's champion Aparna Popat lost meekly to world No.10 Yasuko Mizui of Japan 6-11, 4-11. Yasuko's ultra defensive game proved too much for Aparna, who have won a titanic match earlier against Wan Tin Ling of Hong Kong.

India's men's doubles team of Jaseel Ismail and Vincent Lobo lost to Ove Svejstru and Joachim Nielsen of Denmark 11-15, 15-11, 8-15 in the first round.

The Indian contingent moves to Vejle in Denmark for the Danish Open, which is a 4-star Grand Prix tournament carrying prize-money of 120,000 US dollars.

UNI