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Indian shuttlers improve overall ranking

Despite losing to Ukraine 1-4 in the play-off match for a place in Group II of the 2001 Sudirman Cup Badminton Championships, India's shuttlers improved their ranking from 19 to 15 in the 51-nation team event which concluded at Copenhagen yesterday.
China won the elite group, beating hosts Denmark 3-1, to become the first country to win the Sudirman Cup on three consecutive occasions. The Open event begins on Tuesday.

The scorline may indicate an easy victory for Ukraine, but it was not so. All the matches, except the men's singles and women's doubles went the full distance, with the Indians fighting all the way.
India's lone victory came in the men's singles. National champion Pulela Gopichand, who is improving with every outing, had things his way while beating Dmitry Miznikov 15-3, 15-1. The women's singles too could have gone India's way, but Indian champion Aparna Popat frittered away an early advantage before losing to Elena Nozdran 9-11, 11-9, 5-11. Popat led 5-0 in the first game, but lapsed in concentration as Nozdran took the game narrowly.

In the second game, it was the Indian who staged a brilliant rally before winning by a similar margin. However, the hot pace of the first two games took its toll on Popat as she surrendered tamely in the decider and lost 5-11.

India lost another close match in the men's doubles. The men's doubles combination of Gopichand and Vincent Lobo won the first game 15-12, and with a little bit of luck could have taken the second and won the match. However, they lost the second game 13-15 and then the third at 12 before bowing to Druzchenkov and Tatranov.

In a mixed doubles match, Vinod Kumar and Manjusha Kanwar went down in similar fashion to the experienced pair of Druzchenkov and Victoria Evtoushenko 17-14, 6-15, 8-15, while Manjusha Kanwar and Archana Deodhar lost the women's doubles tie to Elena and Victoria 12-15, 9-15.

Meanwhile, it was an historic hat-trick for China's shuttlers as they dashed the hopes of the home team in a final of fluctuating fortunes which lasted four-and-a-half-hours. China's team manager Li Yongbo later said: "We are so much stronger than before and I believe we can win the Cup two or three times more on this showing."

China, who beat Indonesia 3-2 and Malaysia 5-0 in the group stages, and then overcame South Korea 3-2 in the semi-finals, foiled Denmark's attempt to be the first non-Asian winner of the cup. The Danes got off to a fine start, winning the mixed doubles, but then surprisingly lost both the men's and women's singles, where world number one Peter Gade Christensen and Camilla Martin had been expected to shine. Christensen was beaten by Sun Jun, World championship runner-up two years ago, 13-15, 13-15, while Martin, his girlfriend, lost to Dai Yun 11-5, 9-11, 11-13.

When Jens Eriksen and Jesper Larsen lost to Zhang Jun and Yu Jinhao 12-15, 13-15 in the men's doubles, it was all over. The women's doubles was not played.

Agencies