Sparkling show from Saina

Melbourne: World No.2 Lee Chong Wei led Malaysia’s dominance of the Commonwealth Games, as he took the men’s singles gold over compatriot Wong Choon Hann. Lee’s was among the four gold medals that the new badminton superpower took home. The other golds came in the team championships, the men’s doubles and the women’s doubles.

India had a decent Games, with two bronze medals coming in the men’s singles and the team championships. But of greater value were the individual performances: Saina Nehwal, Aparna Popat, Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand managed to notch some high-profile wins.

Saina in particular had a fabulous tournament. Although she lost in second round of the open event to Xing Aiying of Singapore, she had two big victims in the team championships: world No.12 Li Li and and No. 9 Tracy Hallam. Anup had wins over Kendrick Lee (Singapore) and Aamir Ghaffar (England), while Aparna notched a good win over Li Li, who had beaten her at the Uber Cup prelims at Jaipur in February.

Chetan won the bronze playoff beating Aamir Ghaffar of England in three tight games. Having overcome Hendra Wijaya of Singapore in the quarters, Chetan fell to the higher-rated Wong Choong Hann in the semis.

National champions Anup Sridhar and Aparna Popat fell in the quarters: Anup lost 21-15 21-18 to eventual gold medallist Lee Chong Wei, while Aparna, who dumped defending champion Li Li of Singapore in the second round, ran out of steam to go down 21-13 21-14 against Elizabeth Cann of Jersey.

Still, it was the team championships that had given much cause for cheer. India stunned Singapore in the quarters before falling narrowly to England in their semifinal, after having been whipped in an earlier league match by the same team.

Against Singapore, the campaign started on a wrong note, with the mixed doubles duo of V Diju and Jwala Gutta going down to Hendri Saputra and Li Yujia 21-19 16-21 8-21.
But National champion Anup Sridhar overcame a loss in a closely-fought first game against Kendrick Lee and went on to seal the match 23-21 21-19 21-16 to restore parity.
Thereafter, Saina Nehwal stunned defending women's singles champion Li Li, 21-15 21-14 to give a vital 2-1 lead to India.
Men's doubles duo of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas hammered the last nail into Singapore's coffin as they beat Susilo Ronald and Hendri Hendri Kurniawan Saputra 21-15 21-18 to cap a memorable win for India.

The Indians almost pulled it off against England in the semis. Anup again equalised a first-match deficit, nailing Aamir Ghaffar 15 and 15 after the first match, the mixed doubles, had gone to England.

Saina Nehwal then took to court and continued her dazzling form, overpowering world No.29 Tracy Hallam 23-21, 21-15 to leave India the task of winning one match out of two.

But the Indians couldn’t quite pull it off. Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas lost a narrow decision, at 19 and 19, to Clark and Blair, and then England had it rather easy in the the women’s doubles, winning 11 and 16.

The bronze playoff was against New Zealand, and the India nearly made a mess of it. Although Jwala and Diju pu them ahead, Anup Sridhar, after two good wins earlier, was off-colour against John David Moody. Saina however continued with her fine run of form, beating Rebecca Leigh to make it 2-1 for the Indians. IT was finally left to Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas to seal the bronze in the fourth match, the men’s doubles.