Kashyap, Saina to lead Indian challenge in team event

Fri, Nov 12 10 05:39 PM

S S Ramaswamy Guangzhou, Nov 12 (PTI) Indian men shuttlers sans national champion Chetan Anand will have a tough task at hand when they take on formidable Chinese Taipei in the first round of the Asian Games badminton event while the women too have drawn a tough opponent in Indonesia. In absence of Anand, who has pulled out, a heavy burden has fallen on the shoulders of P Kashyap who would play the second singles against Hsueh Hsuan Yi, the Asian and World Championship quarter finalist, after Arvind Bhat faces Hsieh Yu Hsing in the opener. In between these two ties, Indian doubles pair of Sanave Thomas and Akshay Dewalkar will take on C M Fang and S M Lee, while another pair of V Diju and Rupesh Kumar will face Chen Hung Ling and Lin Yu Lang. World number 54 RMV Gurusaidutt, who has got a chance to parade his wares following the withdrawal of Anand, will have the task of taming 66th ranked Chau Tien Chen in the deciding clash. The Chinese Taipei player has a win against world champion Chen Jin of China during the China Open under his belt. The medal hopes in the women''s team event would largely depend on the form of world number 3 Saina Nehwal, who comes into the Games after winning the singles gold in the Commonwealth Games last month and needs to be at her best when India clash with a strong Indonesian outfit. Saina is to open the campaign against Adriyart Firdasari while Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, who won the women''s doubles gold at the Delhi CWG, will take on Polii Greysia Jauhari Meiliana. Aditi Mutatkar takes on M F Kusumastuti, the 2009 Australian Open winner, which will be followed by the second doubles match between Indian pair of Aparna Balan and Prajakta Sawant and Liliana and Nitya Maheswari of Indonesia. Arundhati Pantawane will play the deciding tie against Linda Venifanetri. The winners of both first round ties would enter the last 16 and this is after a gap of almost a quarter century that India are fielding players in the team events of the Asian Games. Meanwhile, the Indian women''s hockey team, that finished third in the 2006 Doha Games, are to play Malaysia in their opening seven-team round-robin tie tomorrow. The main threats for the Indian women are hosts China and South Korea, according to coach Sandeep Somesh who feels the team has to win against one of these two top teams to entertain gold medal hopes and a direct entry into the 2012 London Olympic Games. .

Source: Published>