Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Great start for Anand Pawar at Malaysia

Anand Pawar had a great start to his Malaysian Super series campaign today. He won both his qualifying rounds in gruelling 3-setter matches, and has now made his way to the main draw of the tournament, that will see the worlds best players competing for the title.


Anand Pawar
 In the first qualifying round, Anand Pawar, currently ranked 44 in the world, defeated Yong Zhao Ashton Chen of Singapore, ranked 67 by a score of 21-11, 14-21, 21-17.

In the second round, Anand was pitted against local lad Yogendran Khrishnan of Malaysia, who is ranked 76 in the world. However the world rankings do not really count for too much at this level, and the 21 point format ensures that everyone is in with a fair chance, so it was a forgone conclusion that the match was not going to be an easy one.
Also Yogendran who had the backing of the local crowd, had got the scalp of world.no.36 Yu Hsing Hsieh of Chinese Taipei in the first qualifying round, which also meant that he was in good form.

Anand Pawar started well against Yogendran and pocketed the first set, 21-14, however lost the next one 10-21. In the final set that was a close encounter, Anand's experience finally got the better of his rival..and he closed out the set & match. The final scorecard read 21-14, 10-21, 21-17.

This great start to the tournament for Anand, means that he is now part of the main draw, and will be competing for the title with the best players in the world.

Anand's acid test starts tomorrow, and he is pitted to play against Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand, who ranks no.7 in world badminton, and is seeded 6th in this event.

Now, many would feel that having to play a no.7 player in the first round itself is a tough & unfavorable draw for Anand. However, my view is the exact opposite. According to me, it is one of the best possible draws that you can get! (and qualifiers get to meet the seeds early, for a good reason)

Consider this. It is not everyday that a you get to play (read: challenge) a top 10 player. And it could go 2 ways. Either you could end up with a great memorable win that would boost your rankings & confidence, or you could end up learning a lot many finer things about the game that will make you a better player!

This is a good draw for Anand. And a better one according to me, would have been a chance to challenge the world no.1.

Anand has played well in the qualifiers.
Now lets hope that he makes the most of this opportunity against Boonsak!


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