Shon Shines in Sunrise India Open

When Wan Ho Shon defeated Peter Gade in the quaterfinal of India Open, little did anybody think that this unseeded Korean would go on to win his maiden Super Series title defeating the best badminton player of the world today, Lee Chong Wei. The 23 year old Korean proved too strong against the World No.1. This was the fifth match between the two and Lee had won on all the previous occasions. It may be noteworthy to mention that this was Shon's first Super Series Final. He had never gone past the quarter final stage of any Super Series tournament earlier.

Shon took the first set at 21-18 giving hardly any chance to his Malaysian opponent but Lee came back strongly to win the second set with ease at 21-14 and leveled the sets at 1 all. In the beginning of the third and final set, Lee looked stronger but lost his away as the game progressed. Shon was particularly strong with his cross court and down the line smashes to which Lee offered very little resistance. In the absence of the Chinese players like Lin Dan, Chen Long and Chin Jen opting to move out, everyone thought it would be an easy final for Lee but Shon matched shot by shot, drop by drop to make matters impossible for the Malaysian. It was very interesting to see the net play from Shon. 

In the other finals today, Korean Women's pair of Kyung Eun Jung and Ha Na Kim defeated Bao Yixin and Zhong Qianxin of China in straight sets 21-17, 21-18 to clinch the Women's doubles title.

All England Champion, Li Xuerui's good form continued with winning the Indian Super Series and bringing a stop to the dream run by her opponent, Juliane Schenk, in three sets, ending in 14-21, 21-17, 21-8 in favour of the Chinese.This is Li's second major title of the year. 

Indonesian mixed doubles pair of Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir were unstoppable today when they defeated Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam of Thailand in three sets 21-16, 12-21, 21-14 for the second time in a row in a major tournament Final. They had won the All Engalnd Open earlier this year and had defeated the same opponent at the Swiss Open Final in March 2012.

Bodin Issara and Maneepong Jongjit of Thailand stunned the World No. 4 pair of Korea Sung Hyun Ko and Yeon Seong Yoo in three sets to clinch the Men's doubles title. The Thai had earlier met the Korean Pair during the Thomas and Uber Cup preliminaries played during February this year and had defeated them.

: Rakesh S Ranbir

New Kid on the Block

What do you call a 16 year old, ranked 28 in the world; defeat a Korean, ranked 11 in straight sets? She has been creating upsets over upsets for the past six months in the world circuit. Standing tall at 5’11”, born to National Volleyball players, P V Ramana and P. Vijaya, she is Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, or P V Sindhu, as she is known to the Badminton fraternity. 

She trains herself at the Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad. She was world no. 2 in the junior circuit six months ago before she decided to take the challenge in the open category. Her coach, Pullela Gopichand once said,” The most striking feature in Sindhu's game is her attitude and the never-say-die spirit”. This was quite evident from the match she played a few minutes ago against a much higher and fancied opponent. She travels a distance of 56 kms from her residence and yet reports the camp on time daily. This goes on to show her willingness to complete her desire to be a good badminton player. 

One of the striking features of her game is her long rally. With her height advantage and long reach, she is able to get the measure of the court and play the net shots with equal ease.

It would be very interesting to see how she tackles the Chinese opponents, when she takes on the World no. 7, Yanjiao Jiang on the morrow. 

Experts say she would be a bigger force than Saina in the world of Badminton. Will she live up to the expectation?

Yonex Sunrise India Open 2012

The Yonex Sunrise India Open 2012 got underway today at the Sirifort Indoor Badminton Hall in New Delhi. Malaysia’s World No.1, Lee Chong Wei, would be seen tomorrow in action when he plays his first round match against Chinese Taipei’s Hsuan Yi Hsueh. Also in action would be Women’s All England Badminton Champion Li Xuerui of China and World No.3, Wang Shixian. Saina Nehwal would begin her campaign tomorrow against World No. 19, Pui Yin Yip of Hong Kong. Saina holds a 3-1 win-loss record against Pui.

Matches start at 8:30 AM, IST and would continue till the last match of the day to be played at 8:30 PM. It is quite encouraging to see at least 26 matches to be played tomorrow featuring Indian players. This would form a huge platform for the upcoming Summer Olympics at London to be played later this year.