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Indian shuttlers assured of top place in group

Like in their match against Austria on Wednesday, national champion Pulela Gopichand displayed brilliant stuff as he rallied past Pontus Jiantti to post a 16-17, 15-10, 15-7 victory. After losing the first game narrowly, Gopichand stepped up the pace to catch his opponent on the wrong foot repeatedly.
India's women's champion Aparna Popat then posted a 11-3, 11-7 victory over A. Weekstrom. In the other matches, Aamjusha Kanwar and P V V Lakshmi beat A Weekstrom and N Weekstrom 15-0, 15-7; Gopichand and Vincent Lobo beat I Nyquist and V Kinnonen 15-5, 15-9. The fifth match was won by Vinod Kumar and Archana Deodhar (details were not available).

India are likely to meet Ukraine, who are favoured to top Group 3B, next. The winners of that encounter earn a berth in Group 2 in the next edition of the Sudirman Cup in 2001. The individual event begins next week.

Meanwhile, Thailand and England will clash on Friday to decide who will replace Malaysia or Sweden in the elite group. The two teams set up the showdown in widely contrasting manner. While England crushed The Netherlands 5-0 to top their group, following earlier wins over Scotland and Russia, Thailand recovered from a 2-1 deficit to beat Japan 3-2.
The victory put Thailand and Japan level on two wins in Group B, with matches level on 9-6, but the Thai team went through by virtue of winning Thursday's match although not before Germany had complicated the equation with their second win, toppling Taiwan 3-2 in the three-game final match of the night. Sujitra Ekmongkolpaisan and Thungthongkam were Thailand's stars. They won the decisive women's doubles against Haruko Matsuda and Yoshiko Iwata 15-8, 4-15, 17-14.

Earlier, England swept past the Dutch with 33-year-old Darren Hall giving them a winning lead with a stunning 20-minute15-2, 15-2 win over former World junior champion Dicky Palyama, the world No 30. Hall, who has to qualify to the men's singles individual event, celebrated by taking a bow in front of his teammates.

Sweden, who beat England in the play-offs two years ago to relegate the English to the second division, have to beat Morten Frost's Malaysia to survive in the elite group.

In the semi-finals of the elite group today, China face South Korea, while Denmark meet inaugural champions Indonesia in the semi-finals. China are bidding for their third straight Sudirman Cup triumph.

Agencies