Monday, April 4, 2011

Australian Open GP Gold-2011

The Australian Open-2011 (YONEX Australian Open Grand Prix Gold 2011 badminton tournament) is being held at Melbourne, Australia from 5th-10th April 2011.
The entire Indian squad who had participated at the New Zealand Open-2011 in the last week have now travelled to Australia to play in the Australian Open-2011. There is no Indian representation in the women's section.

The Indians participating in the event are:

Men's Singles:

Arvind Bhat
R.M.V. Guru Sai Dutt
Aditya Elango
Eeshan Naqvi
Ajit Wijettilak

Men's Doubles:
Arun Vishnu and Akshay Dewalkar.

Eeshan & Ajit will be playing in the qualifying rounds of the men's singles badminton event, while all the other Indian players have got direct entries into the main draw of the tournament. Eeshan Naqvi will be playing against Athi Selladurai of Australia, while Ajit Wijetilek is up against Ernest Yu Loong Ng also of Australia in the first round of the qualifying rounds.

The first round draws for the Indians in the main draw are as below:
Arvind Bhat vs. Nicholas Jinadasa (U.S.A)
Aditya Elango vs. Tommy Sugiarto (Indonesia)
R.M.V. Guru Sai Dutt vs. Yi Lu (China)
Arun Vishnu/Akshay Dewalkar vs. Hirokatsu Hashimoto/Noriyasu Hirata (Japan)

Aditya Elango has got a tough match on his hands in the first round itself. His opponent Tommy Sugiarto is a very good player, seeded 9th in this tournament, and who is currently ranked no.32 in the world rankings. This also represents a very good opportunity for Aditya to raise his game and try for an upset win.

In the men's doubles Arun & Akshay are drawn to play the top seeds and world No.10 Japanese pair of Hashimoto/Hirata, and it would be interesting to watch how far the Indian pair can stretch the world no.10 pair.

All considered Arvind & Guru Sai Dutt have a fair chance to reach at least round 3 and if they do so, they will most possibly be playing against the top seeds Boonsak Ponsana [1] &  Tien Minh Nguyen [2] respectively for a place in the quarter-finals.

Related Articles:

Australian Open Grand Prix Gold -2011 - updates


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