It’s time to Serve, Rally & Smash!!!
Annual Singara Badminton Championship
Image Cup - 2009
Sunday the 20th September, a nice Sunny morning was an ideal day for the start of the Annual Singara Badminton Championship for the year 2009 @ Tampanies Sports Hall. The tournament continued the next day 21st September @ Woodlands Sports Hall.
The enthusiasm of players for playing a game or for officiating in a match was very much evident on both the days and this resulted in four out of five finals getting completed (except for the Mens Singles Finals) within two days of the tournament with a day to spare. The tournament organisers managed to get the necessary courts booked to facilitate this.
The Matches:
Most of the preliminary matches and a couple of semifinals matches were played out on day one. Matches on day two involved the remaining semifinals and the finals.
Women’s Singles
Women’s singles tie saw the youngest participant Kum. Chinmayi Nadiger battle it out against Roopashree. Although the first set was easily won by Roopashree 15-3 the second set proved to be a much tougher fight with Chinmayi defending four match points (score 15-3, 15-10).
The other match was a much more keenly fought one between first time participant Vidya Patil v/s experienced Geetha Pujar. Vidya came back from a set down to take the second set, but the experience of Geetha Pujar prevailed in the end, and the score read 15-7, 13-15, 15-9.
The semi-finals – Roopashree was able to give a fight in the first set of the first semi-final against defending champion Ramya SY, but the champion having gauged the opponent in the first set defeated quite comfortably in the second set. The score reading 15-10, 15-3. The other semi-final was comfortably won by Shashimukhi against Geetha Pujar.
The finals – the title match was between Ramya SY & Shashimukhi S. Finals as always are matches between keen and experienced players. This final was also keenly fought, but defending champion Ramya was able to meet up to the challenge and retain the title, the score reading 15-9, 15-12.
Men’s Singles
With none of the four semi-finalists of last year participating in this years event, Raghunath (who was the ‘Player of the Tournament 2008) was the favourite and he started of his campaign in the right earnest warding off the challenge from Kishore K (score 21-4, 21-9).
A long time participant in Kannada Sangha Badminton tournaments Puraj MH overcame the challenge from Suresh HC (score 21-4, 21-4) in round one but had to face a tougher challenge in Chaitanya S Rao in the next round. Chaitanya was a set up (score 21-17, 12-14) before retiring from the match.
At the other end of the tie, ShivGovind had fairly easy outings in both the rounds, overcoming Sameer Samarth (score – 21-5, 21-3) and RaviPrakash (score – 21-4, 21-2).
ChannabasavaKumar overcame the challenge from Raghavendra Bhandare (score 21-11, 21-9) in the first round and his spirited play in the second round was not enough to defeat Santosh Onkaraiah. Santosh proved a much tougher opponent winning 21-12, 21-10.
The semi-finals – the doubles partners Raghunath & Pujar MH met in the singles semi-finals. The first set was keenly fought out 21-17 to Raghunath but the second set was comfortably won (score 21-17, 21-11). The other semi-final was a walkover to Santosh as ShivGovind was unable to make it to the match as he was injured on day one.
The finals - the toughest matches are always reserved for the finals. The first set going down to the wire 21-19 to Raghunath with Santosh defending two set points. Santosh came back strongly in the second set winning 21-10 with his power game. With one set each the 3rd set will also be keen fought and we need to wait till 27th Sunday to know the result.
Women’s Doubles
The only preliminary match in this category saw the first time participants Chethana / Nirmala take on Shashimukhi / Radhika with the later winning quite comfortably 15-5, 15-4.
The finals – as in the women’s singles, the doubles final was between the last years contesting teams – Ramya / Geetha Pujar & Shashimukhi / Radhika and the result was no different from last year with the defending champions Ramya / Geetha Pujar retaining the title 15-6, 15-5.
Men’s Doubles
Perhaps the toughest match was played out in the first round itself with the experienced defending champions Srinivas Harihar / Prajyot Doshi making a comeback from 14-19 down to take the first set 21-19 against Santosh / ShivGovind. The second set was also keenly fought, but the experience pair prevailed with the score reading 21-16.
Another long time participant of Kannada Sangha Badminton tournaments (participating right from the very first tournament in 1998) Sathish Shanbhag teamed up with Srinath to defeat the pair of Kishore and Raghavendra Bandare (score 21-6, 21-10).
At the other end of the tie, the team of Pujar MH / Raghunath HJ overcame the challenge of Chaitanya S Rao / RaviPrakash KM (score 21-9, 21-13). The other preliminary match between team of Subramanya Kota / Sumanth Puttur and Raghavendra R / Srinivas KJ saw lot of unforced errors for both ends and the score line of 21-15, 21-17 doesn’t really reflect the true nature of the match.
The semi-finals – Defending Champions, Srinivas Harihar / Prajyot Doshi met Sathish Shanbhag /Srinath in the first semis and faced stiff competition in only the second set. The first set was won much more easily helped with many unforced errors. The score read 21-9, 21-17. The second semis was a easy walk through for Pujar MH / Raghunath HJ against Raghavendra R / Srinivas KJ (score 21-11, 21-7).
The finals – Co-ordination between doubles partners and experience once again came to the fore when the defending champions successfully defended the title. The team of Pujar MH / Raghunath also played very well to put a fight, but in the end, had to accept defeat against the time tested team of Srinivas Harihar / Prajyot Doshi. The score read 21-13, 21-9.
This was one of those rear matches, watched and applauded by some of the other players in the stadium.
Mixed Doubles
The preliminary match between first time participants Shubha/Sumanth Puttur & Vidya Patil/Channabasavakumar saw the second three setter on day one, with Vidya Patil being involved in both the matches. The first set went on to the very last point (19-21) with Shubha/Sumanth Puttur winning the set. Being a set down didn’t stop VidyaPatil/Channabasavakumar making a successful comeback and take the next two sets 21-10, 21-12.
The semifinals: - having won the three setter, VidyaPatil/Channabasavakumar had to face the defending champions in the first semis. They could not match the experience of the Ramya/Pujar and had to lose out 21-4, 21-6.
The other semifinal was fought on a more equal level with Raghunath/GeethaPujar almost winning the first set. But the placements of Shashimukhi/Srinath could not the matched and they had to go down fighting 21-17, 21-12.
The finals: - both the sets began on equal footing with both the teams Shashimukhi/Srinath & Ramya/Pujar matching each other point to point. But as the game progressed the momentum could not be sustained by the defending champions Ramya/Pujar and they had to hand over the title to Shashimukhi/Srinath (21-13, 21-12).
A Final Word:
Participation and Sportsmanship are as important as winning the event. Sportsmanship was very much evident on both the days with no untoward incidents or hard feelings between the participants. Although players registering for the event were less than last year, the turnout was almost 100% with 29 out of the 30 registered players participating in the event.
This event has not only allowed the participants to show case their talent and foster new friendships, but would also have rekindled the interest in taking up to this sport more regularly and to come back next year better prepared to challenge the title defenders.
This Annual Singara Badminton Championship 2009 & IMAGE CUP - 2009 is sponsored by
IMAGE INTERNATIONAL [S] PTE LTD.
Image School of Technology provides Information Technology courses for students and working professionals. The institute imparts knowledge, provides infrastructure and support to enable them to step into the InfoComm Sector as competent candidates."Image is established to groom local IT talent and are Registered with MOE. For more information please visit www.image.edu.sg or www.imageint.com.sg