Arvind Bhatt takes Gopichand
to the distance
India's number one shuttler Pulella Gopichand lived upto his billing as he defeated Karnataka's
Arvind Bhatt to book a berth in the men's singles final in the
inaugural Harichand memorial badminton tournament in Kanpur on Friday.
In a thrilling semi-final, the 2001 All England champion
rallied from a mid-match slump to post a 7-2, 7-0, 7-8, 4-7, 8-7
victory in an hour and 15 minutes.
While Gopichand hardly broke sweat as he took the first
two games, he was made to work hard for his points thereafter. Bhatt fought back into the match as he took the third and
fourth games to set up a thrilling final game which was also
keenly contested, with the players displaying some fine shots.
In the end, it was Gopichand's experience with saw him through.
In the final, Gopichand will meet Sachin Ratti, who beat Siddharth Jain 7-3, 6-8, 7-4 in the second semi-final.
Earlier, in a women's singles semi-final, B R Meenakshi
upset top seed P V V Laxmi in straight games 7-1, 7-1, 7-3 in
just 26 minutes.
The second semi-final also saw an upset as second seeded
Tripti Murugunde of Air India was shown the door by Neelima
Choudhary of Andhra Pradesh. Neelima beat Tripti 7-2, 7-5, 4-7, 7-1 in 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, the men's doubles final will see Jaiseel P
Ismail and Jaison Xavier clash with Sanav Thomas and
V Diju.
Ismail and Xavier beat Marcos Bristow/Rupesh Kumar
4-7, 7-2, 7-5, 2-7, 7-1 in a thrilling one-and-a-half-hour
encounter while Thomas and Diju accounted for Vijay Deep Singh
and Utsav Mishra 7-4, 8-6, 7-1.
In the mixed doubles final, Bristow teamed up with B R
Meenakshi to win the title. They beat Neelima Choudhry and
Chetan Anand 7-1, 8-6, 7-5 in 27 minutes.
Yesterday's report
Sachin Ratti shocks Chetan Anand