It was a fitting climax to the India Club-Western Union UAE Open Badminton Championship at the India Club as the best men's doubles pairs of India battled it out for the title. That indeed, was the feature match of the day and the sizeable crowd finally had something to cheer about after the disappointing standards set by the women shuttlers earlier.
The men's singles final provided some fireworks as well, as former Thomas Cup player Thomas Kurien put in place India's rising star Sourabh Verma in three games 15-21 21-12 21-14. Verma is from India national coach P Gopichand's academy and after struggling to beat veteran and 2007 champion Arup Baidya in three games, met his match in the final.
Making a comeback
For Kurien, it was just the right kind of start to his long campaign back from injury. And the scream of delight after the final point showed how much winning here meant to him. "I am 29 now and I do think I still have time to get back to where I was before the injuries stopped my progress," Kurien said.
If the men's singles final was good, the women's was equally bad. Mohita Sahdev, who represented India in the World University meet in Bangkok in 2007, won a mismatch against Sangeetha Rajagopalan 21-4 21-10. Understandably, Sahdev was disappointed despite winning the title. "When they invited me over, I was very excited at the prospect of playing some good matches, this being my first visit to Dubai. But the whole tournament has been a damper of sorts, since there was hardly any competition," she said.
The much-anticipated men's doubles threw up some exciting rallies, as V Diju, who had won the mixed doubles titles earlier with Vidya Manghnani, got together with his former partner Jaseel P Ismail to take out the top Indian pair of Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar in straight games 21-18 21-15.
Time to spare
Following the match Thomas revealed that thanks to the Badminton Association of India's (BAI) policy of sending only juniors to international tournaments, the players had the time to come to Dubai and display their wares. "The BAI is still sticking to its guns about sending only juniors to international tournaments. The others have to pay from their own pockets if they want to play. So, although the Singapore Open is on, we are playing here instead of trying to improve our rankings," he said.
