One thing for sure. There is a hope for WS 3 in the near future. The match which Ruthvika shivani played against Nichaon Jindapol is in Youtube. I watched it. Commentator Hans Kristien vittinghus analysed her game and said that though she is slow in movements, she covers all part of the court with ease and she has great stroke play with high quality. He acknowledged her mature display when the score was even in the second game 16-16, he thought that in that case, experience will play a part. But Gadde showed more maturity for her age and played some high quality shots especially @19-16 . Considering the background of Nichaon Jindapol, she is not an easy opponent to play against. She will drag everybody including Li xuerui until the last game. Ruthvika shivani's game is similar to that of Wang shixian. Effortless and more matured.
Saina Nehwal Bags her 10th SS title! Saina Nehwal is a serious contender for Rio. She makes India proud with scintillating badminton. This will be a mental boost. I was a little worried when Sun Yu got 19 points in game 3 but Saina held her nerve!
Did not think that Saina could beat Wang Yihan and Ratchanok but she did it in Australia and congrats to her. Not sure if Yihan was injured or not. This is the only tournament she won this year but I don't fancy her winning in Rio as her rivals would come out stronger. She has poor head to head with her main rivals. She should work in her speed, which is her main weakness. Her rivals like Wang Shixian, Carolina and Tai are far more faster, while Ratchanok and Li Xuerui have better racket skills.
India's male Single players are a big let down. Last year they had many players in top 20 and none of them won any SS since then. The Thomas Cup demonstrated India lacked strength in the Men's game.
The Thomas and Uber Cup especially showed an embarassing doubles standard for a country with such strong singles players, both on the Women's and Men's team...
Guys before you trash us please remember our women reached the Uber podium and men were half (quarter) strength due to injuries. Can't deny that we have receded, but good juniors are in the wings. Onward and upward to Tokyo and beyond. JAI HIND!
The worrying part is most of the upcoming juniors are singles players (most of the best are a bit worse than the likes of Sania, Gopi and Prakash and a bit better than Sin and Sri).... While none of the upcoming dubs players are world class... All are worse than even JG, though some are better prospects than BSR/MA, RK/ST, AD/PJC
Last year, Srikanth won India open SS and Swiss open GPG . Kashyap won India GPG etc . Even without proper doubles, they defeated China in Thomas cup qualifiers in NewDelhi.
Tian Houwei , a top ten player played Srikanth (lower ranked than Tian) and Wang Zhengming , was higher ranked than Ajay jayaram atleast by 15 ranks. Only Shi Yuqi was lower ranked than Prannoy. And all the other doubles of china were higher ranked than Indian pair by all means. They were favourites. But they lost to under dogs india. Indian singles played very well at that time to defeat chinese higher ranked players. They deserved it.
Mauritius International 2016 results MS : 18 year old Rahul Yadav Chittaboina beats his 20 year old elder brother Rohit yadav chittaboina , takes the title. WS : Saili Rane took the title. XD / MD : 15 year old Satwik took 2 titles with respective partners K.Maneesha and Chirag Shetty respectively. WD : Prajaktha Sawant with her malaysian partner took WD title.
@badmuse @Baddyforall who is this 14 year old from Chattisgarh, A. Kashyap.... Junior u-19 champ at 14.... bested Shreyanshi J... Real deal or another flash in the pan??
@badmuse @Baddyforall who is this 14 year old from Chattisgarh, A. Kashyap.... Junior u-19 champ at 14.... bested Shreyanshi J... Real deal or another flash in the pan??
@Fan123, Akarshi Kashyap is good it seems. But i haven't yet watched a match of her to talk about her. Really, she is doing well in domestic events . She has that 'josh' to prove it. But have to wait and see how she performs against international players.
Sai Praneeth defeated Lee Hyun ill very convincingly in 2 straight games, 21-12,21-10 to take the Canada Open title 2016 yesterday. Manu/sumeet won the doubles title. Congratulations to both of them.
@Fan123 Sorry, just saw your post. I don't know anything about her. She needs to keep winning to get on the radar.
Canada GP India take 2 Gold! India winning the doubles title is a step in the right direction. They have a long way to go before they can become force in doubles. These are small but very important steps. It will boost morale and give hope to the younger players. India winning the singles is also important as it will spur the youngsters and push the seniors.
