Asian Youth Championship: Varma, Arjun/Shetty stay in title hunt

Unseeded Siril Varma and the doubles combination of M R Arjun and Chirag Shetty kept alive India’s hope of bringing home the gold medal when they ensured a final berth in their respective events of the Asian Youth (U-15 & U-17) badminton championship in Kudus, Indonesia, on Saturday.

Siril Varma, who trains at the Gopichand Badminton Academy, had to save two game points in the second game before clinching his u-boys 15 singles semifinal encounter against Thaliand’s Nipornam Pacharapol 21-10, 21-18 in just 38 minutes.

He will now take on local favourite Putra Gatja in the final.

In the boy’s u-17 doubles, top seeds Arjun and Shetty defeated Thai combination of Kantawat Leelavechabut Krit Tantianankul 22-20, 21-19 in a hard fought encounter to reach the summit clash. The Indian combination, which has not lost a singles game in the tournament so far, will now face another Thai challenge in the form of Mak Narongrit and Kantaphon Wangcharoen.

Meanwhile, two other Indian challengers – Daniel Farid (boys u-17 singles) and Krishna Prasad/Shreya Bose (u-15 mixed doubles) had to settle for a bronze medal after losing their respective semifinals.

Results (semifinals)

U-15

Boys singles: Siril Varma bt Nipornam Pacharapol (Tha) 21-10, 22-20

Mixed Doubles: Krishna Prasad/Shreya Bose lost to Nipornram Pacharapol/Chaiwan Pattarasuda (Tha) 21-19, 17-21, 21-19

U-17

Boys doubles: 1-M R Arjun/Chirag Shetty bt Kantawat Leelavechabut/Krit Tantianankul (Tha) 22-20, 21-19

Boys Singles: Daniel Farid lost to 3-Abdul Kholik (Ina) 21-8, 21-11

Ruthvika, Daniel, Dasgupta and Varma in Asian Youth meet quarters

Four Indian singles players stayed on course for a podium finish in the Asian Youth (U-15 & U-17) Badminton Championship currently underway at Kudus, Indonesia, after reaching the quarterfinal round in their respective age category.

Ruthvika Shivani (girls u-17), Daniel Farid (boys u-17), Arintap Dasgupta and Siril Varma (boys u-15) made it to the last eight stage on Thursday.

In the girl’s under-17 event, top seed Ruthvika Shivani hammered Yeung Nga Ting of Hong Kong 21-14, 21-14 and will take on 5^th seed Supanida Katethong of Thailand.

While the higher ranked Indian players were made to bite the dust, Daniel Farid got the better of local hope and eighth seed Zulkifli Muhammad 21-12, 10-21, 21-12.

Results (third round)

Girls u-17

Ruthvika Shivani bt Yeung Nga Ting of Hong Kong 21-14, 21-14

Boys u-17

Daniel Farid bt 8-Zulkifli Muhammad (Ina) 21-12, 10-21, 21-12

Boys u-15

Arintap Dasgupta bt Nugroho Bagas Kristianto (Ina) 13-21, 21-17, 21-12; Siril Varma bt Utama Aliev Cahya 18-21, 21-8, 21-10

Ruthvika Shivani gets top billing in Asian Youth championship

Junior national champion Ruthvika Shivani have been given top billing in the girls u-17 singles category of the Flypower Badminton Asia Youth (U-15 and U-17) championship to be held in Kudus, Indonesia, from October 8-13.

The Gopichand Academy trainee is the firm favourite to bring home the u-17 singles especially in the absence of any Chinese challenger in the competition.

In fact, all the four Indian participants in the girls u-17 category have been seeded in the tournament for the first time ever with Shreyanshi Pardeshi seeded third, Gujarat’s Anoushka Parikh sixth and ShuttleCraze Academy, Mumbai’s Karishma Wadkar seventh.

In the boy’s u-17 section, the Indian challenge will be led by fifth seed Chirag Sen with seventh seed Laa Talar, Daniel Farid and Rahul Yadav completing the team.

Indian squad:

U-15

Boys: Siril Verma, Lakshya Sen, Arintap Dasgupta, Gulshan Kartikey, Swastik Sai Raj, Krishna Prasad

Girls: Kanika Kanwal, Ashmita Chaliha, Kalpita Sawant, Akshita Bhandari, Shreya Bose

U-17

Boys: Daniel Farid, Rahul Yadav, Chirag Sen, Laa Talar, MR Arjun, Chirag Shetty, Saurav Sharma, Rohan Kapoor

Girls: Karishma Wadkar, G Ruthvika Shivani, Shriyanshi Pardeshi, Anoushka Parikh, M Archana, JK Malvika, Ashna Roy, Kuhoo Garg

Coaches: K Mohan, Vikas Sharma, O S Rana

Prannoy upsets world number six Jorgensen

Youth Olympics silver medallist H S Prannoy led the country’s charge in the Yonex Japan Open Super Series as three Indian men’s singles players reached the quarterfinal stage in Tokyo on Thursday.

Prannoy upset world number six Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark 21-14, 13-21, 21-17 in the men’s singles second round to set up a last eight clash with China’s Huan Gao.

Also joining him in the last eight stage were Thailand Grand Prix Gold winner K Srikanth and Ajay Jayaram.

Srikanth hammered local boy Kozai Kazuteru 21-12, 21-16 while Ajay got the better of Yuichi Ikeda 21-13, 11-21, 21-18.

In the quarterfinals, Srikanth will face seventh seed Kenichi Tago of Japan while Ajay will take on fifth seed Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam.

Anand Pawar was the only Indian men’s singles player to bow out on Thursday. The Mumbai boy came up with an inspiring performance but failed to upset world number one Lee Chong Wei. He lost 21-12, 21-16.

While the men had a good outing, women’s singles eighth seed P V Sindhu suffered a reversal when she went down 21-6, 21-17 against Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi.

BWF World Championship: Sindhu settles for bronze

P V Sindhu was given a lesson or two in deception and point building as the Indian was outclassed 21-10, 21-13 in the semifinal of the BWF World badminton championship in Guangzhou, China, on Saturday.

Sindhu, who had assured herself a bronze medal after beating seventh seed Shixian Wang on Friday, wasn’t allowed to play her natural game by the three time world junior champion in a match was billed to be a face-off between the future of world badminton.

Ratchanok was always in control throughout the 35 min encounter and the way she used her drops and down the line smashes to unsettle Sindhu was a proof of why she is regarded so highly by her fellow competitors.

BWF World Championship: Kashyap deserves credit for his effort

P Kashyap was just one point from becoming the first Indian men’s singles player in 30 years to assure a World Championship medal as the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist held a match point in the second game in the quarterfinal against third seed Pengyu Du of China.
The opportunity was missed and Du summoned all his experience to once again stage a comeback in the decider to end Kashyap’s hopes.
It is difficult to comment on what actually happened on that point since the match was not live on the Sony Six – the official broadcaster of the tournament in India. But what is more baffling is how come the television network has not bothered to get the feed from the adjoining court because the live scoring website – tournamentsoftware.com -- clearly states that both courts are TV courts on Friday.
At 20-19 in the second game, Du also needed just one point to put pressure back on the Indian who would have been a bundle of nerves, having come this far in a tournament for the first time ever.
That one point may end up haunting Kashyap all his life if he never gets close winning a World Championship medal in the future. But he can take heart from the fact that he did everything he could to create history.
Despite the end results, Kashyap can take heart from the fact that this was one of his best performance by far.

BWF World Championship: Sindhu assured of bronze after quarterfinal win

Eighteen-year-old P V Sindhu created history on Friday when she defeated seventh seed Shixian Wang of China to become the first Indian women’s singles player to assure a medal in the BWF World Championship in Guangzhou.
The performance is all the more commendable since this was Sindhu’s first ever world championship appearance.
The Asian junior champion, who had upset second seed and defending champion Yihan Wang in the earlier round, completed the 21-18, 21-17 in just 55 minutes to book a semifinal berth and thereby a medal. She will now take on Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, who got the better of Spain’s Carolina Marin 21-18, 20-22, 21-15.
The legendary Prakash Padukone had bagged India’s first ever world championship bronze in 1983 at Copenhagen and Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa became the first women’s doubles pairing to reach the semifinals in 2011.
Badminton Association of India President Akhilesh Das Gupta congratulated Sindhu on her historic performance and hoped that she would go on to achieve bigger glory on Saturday. “I congratulate Sindhu on reaching the semifinals and ensuring a medal. But she has the capability to go all the way in the tournament and I wish her all the luck in her endeavour.”
Sindhu’s quarterfinal triumph brought cheers to the Indian camp after third seed Saina Nehwal and P Kashyap had gone down fighting in the morning session.
Playing against an experienced opponent, Sindhu stayed very patient in long rallies, which is Wang’s strength, and delivered her half-smashes at will whenever the opportunity presented itself.
“I am very happy that everything went according to the plan. It is great to win a medal in my very first world championship appearance, but I want to now concentrate on tomorrow’s match and not allow myself to relax,” said Sindhu.
Chief National coach Pullela Gopichand was full of praise for Sindhu and said the youngster showed great composure and maturity to handle the pressure. “She played exceptionally well and was in control of the match throughout.”
Earlier, national men’s singles champion P Kashyap suffered a heart break as he was just one point away from sealing a semifinal berth but could not convert the lone match point and ended up on the losing end against third seed Pengyu Du of China 16-21, 22-20, 21-15.
The 2010 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist played to a plan and had Du on the mat for the majority of first game and staged a brilliant comeback in the second, before the Chinese rode on the crowd support to snatch victory from the Indian.
“It was disappointing not to be able to convert the match point. But I am happy that I gave my best and hopefully the result will be different the next time,” said Kashyap after the match.
On the adjacent court, Saina was off colour and went down 23-21, 21-9 against 13th seed Yeon Ju Bae of Korea. The London Olympics bronze medallist began on a confident note as she raced to a 17-11 lead in the first game but suffered an unexpected melt down to lose the game and eventually the match.

Results (quarterfinals):

Women's singles: 10-P V Sindhu bt 7-Shixian Wang (China) 21-18, 21-17; 3-Saina Nehwal lost to Yeon Ju Bae (Korea) 23-21, 21-9
Men's singles: 13-P Kashyap lost to 3-Pengyu Du (China) 16-21, 22-20, 21-15