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ShareMumbai: Anand Pawar and Chetan Anand won their semifinals against Guru Sai Dutt and P Kashyap respectively to enter the final of the men's singles at the second edition of the Tata Open on Saturday.
National champion Sayali Gokhale faced stiff competition from unseeded Trupti Murgunde. Gokhale was stretched by Murgunde, who has a vast repertoire of shots, and it was only after a hard-fought 70 minutes did the national champion prevail 21-19 14-21 21-17. Gokhale will clash with Neha Pandit, who upset No.1 seed Aditi Mutatkar 21-11 21-12 in the quarterfinals held in the morning. Gayatri Vartak, who beat No.4 seed Ashwini Ponnappa in the quarterfinals, fell without too much of a fight against Pandit in the semifinals.
No.7 seed Guru Sai Dutt was expected to provide stiffer competition to Pawar. However, the Mumbai-based Pawar was playing at his best. He did not give Sai Dutt a chance to get a foothold and the 21-12 21-14 verdict was decisive.
However, against an in-form Anand, Pawar will have to lift his game. "I will have to be smarter against Anand in the final. I had match points at 20-19 in the third game against Anand in Belgium and at the Nationals in Goa last year. But those games didn't go my way," Pawar said.
Pawar, the son of former badminton players Uday and Sujatha, is itching to get some big wins under his belt. "I have been really close to winning against some big players but haven't been able to shut out the match. It's about time I pulled off a big win. I have never won an All-India title so far. I am used to people telling me, 'Well played but hard luck.' It's something I want to change," Pawar added.
Explaining why he tends to lose hold on a match, Pawar said: When I am up in the deciding game, I tend to get desperate. I want to finish off the game fast as I start thinking of how close I am to a win."
No.6 Ajay Jayaram stretched Anand to three games in the quarterfinals. However, Anand was in stupendous form against Kashyap. "I lost focus against Jayaram in the first game. I didn't want to allow that to happen again in the semifinal," Anand said.
After a lacklustre Asian tour, Anand came into the tournament hoping to win a few games ahead of the World Championships. So far the script has gone well for Anand.
Semifinal results: Men's singles: Chetan Anand bt P Kashyap 21-11 21-12, Anand Pawar bt Guru Sai Dutt 21-12 21-14; Men's doubles: Rupesh Kumar/Sanave Thomas bt Jaseel P Ismail/Jaison Xavier 21-10 21-14, Arun Vishnu/Tarun K bt Akshay Dewalkar/Jishnu Sanyal 21-17 14-21 21-15; Women's singles: Neha Pandit bt Gayatri Vartak 21-8 21-13, Sayali Gokhale bt Trupti Murugunde 21-19 14-21 21-17; Women's doubles: Aparna Balan/Shruti Kurien bt Bibari Basumatary/ Oli Deka 21-15 21-5, Nitya Sosale/Pradnya Gadre bt Anjali Kalita/Jyotshna P 21-17 10-21 21-14; Mixed doubles: V Diju/ Ashwini Ponnappa bt Tanvir Gill/ Mohita Sahdev 21-17 21-14, Arun Vishnu/Aparna Balan bt V Manuel/Saumya Padhye 21-16 8-2 (retired)
