Gopichand, Popat champs

Pullela Gopichand and Aparna Popat won the men's and women's singles titles respectively in the senior National badminton championships, which concluded at Jaipur on Wednesday.

In an all-PSCB men's final, top seed and world No. 6 Gopichand beat third seed Siddharth Jain 15-8, 15-6 to win the crown for the fifth successive time.

Victory came as easily for Popat in the women's final. The top seed had things her way while whipping her second seeded PSCB team mate Manjusha Kanwar 13-11, 11-2.

Gopichand, looking in his best form, proved too good for Siddharth who, despite taking a 5-0 lead in the opening game, found himself totally outclassed. However, it must be said that Siddharth, in his maiden national final, was not overawed by his illustrious opponent.

After conceding a 0-5 lead, Gopi got his act together with a few powerful smashes and deft placements to level at 5-all. From then all it was Gopi all the way as Siddharth, who displayed patches of brilliance, could not sustain his fine show.

Siddharth looked clearly frustrated as he struggled to find an answer to Gopi's net-placement. He managed to win back the service at 12-7 but could manage only one point before hitting into the net. Gopi then finished off the first game without much ado.

In the second, it Gopi took an 8-0 lead. Siddharth, a former junior national champ, looked tired and demoralised as he made many unforced errors as Gopi wrapped up the match in 48 minutes.

After the match, Gopichand said Siddharth played well in the first game but slowed down considerably in the second.

"He played brilliantly in patches. I tried to engage him in rallies and he, being eager to finish them off early, made some errors," Gopichand said.

"I guessed he was tirring up so I tried to extend him and finished off with smashes or net placements whenever he sent a weak return," he said.

A dejected Siddharth said he was unable to keep pace with Gopi's game.

"Gopi is an international player and it was expected. I could not play at his pace. It is okay with the rest of the guys but Gopi is too fast. Probably I will have to work more on my fitness as I felt tired and made some unforced errors," he said.

Lobo-Ismail, Jwala-Shruti win in doubles

The top seeds in both men's and women's doubles events bit the dust as the pair of Vincent Lobo and Jaseel P Ismail and that of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien won the respective crowns.

The second seeded PSCB pair of Lobo and Ismail toppled the combination of Marcose Bristow (PSCB) and Vijay Deep Singh (Rlys) 15-9, 15-6 in the men's final, while the Andhra Pradesh duo of Jwala and Shruti got the better of the seasoned P V V Laxmi (PSCB) and Madhumita Bisht (Rlys) 15-13, 15-2 in the women's event.