Gopichand wins Grand Prix opener

Seeded fourth in the tournament and fancied to make it to the semi-finals from Group C, Gopichand started slowly, taking time to adjust to the air draft. His powerful opponent took full advantage of the Indian's tentativeness.

Vaughan, ranked 17th in the world -- to Gopichand's No 7 ranking, came out with a plan and executed it superbly as he forced the All England champion to lift the shuttle and waited for the kill from backcourt.

With the Indian unable to get the correct length on his tosses, Vaughan had no difficulty in taking the opening game.

In the second game though, Gopichand began much more strongly, even though he still had problems in getting the correct length and direction. But slowly, he settled down.

Despite trailing 2-4 in the second game, the Indian kept his composure and a beautiful cross-court dribble at that point changed the direction of the match. From then on, Vaughan, who had till then been reading the Indian's usually deceptive netplay pretty well, began to step back a little, allowing Gopichand to take control at the net.

Suddenly the match turned and a powerful down-the-line smash gave Gopichand the second game 7-4.

From 2-4 in the second game, to 3-0 in the fourth, the world number seven played near flawless badminton as he reeled off 13 points in a row.

The Welshman struggled desperately to find an answer to the Indian's touch. Gopichand took the third game 7-0 - no mean feat in a hall where the swirling draft, generated by the air-conditioning, made the shuttle nearly impossible to control.

Finally, despite appearing to relax a bit in the fourth game, Gopichand claimed it 7-3 to get him a well-deserved victory and keep his all-win head-to-head record against the Welshman intact. This was the Indian's fourth successive win over Vaughan.

"It is good to start off with a win. I did struggle initially with the breeze. His tactics were good too at the beginning. But then, I began to feel the shuttle better," said Gopichand later.

"I think it is going to be really tough in every mach and I need to keep my concentration up all the time," he said.

In a tournament considered to be one of the most prestigious on the badminton circuit, Gopichand will have his task cut out to make the semi-finals, despite his seeding.

The first Indian representative at this traditional season-ending event, Gopichand has in his group Olympic champion Ji Xinpeng of China as well as world number six and the runner-up at the last edition of this event, Marleve Mainaky of Indonesia.

On Thursday, Gopichand plays the Chinese, who he has never lost to in five meetings. But the Olympic champion is not a man to be taken lightly and the Indian will have to pull out all stops to keep his record intact.

Men's singles results - Day 1:

Groups	Match	Score	Time
Group A	Santoso Budi (INA) beat 1- Peter Gade (/DEN)	7-4, 8-6, 7-5	43 min
Group A	Xuanze Xia (CHN) beat Choong Hann Wong (MAS)	8-6, 6-8, 8-6, 7-8, 8-6	68 min
Group B	Hendrawan (INA) beat Anders Boesen (DEN)	7-1, 7-1, 7-1	18 min
Group B	3-Roslin M Hashim (MAS) beat Yigang Luo (CHN)	7-1, 7-3, 8-6	36 min
Group C	Marleve Mainaky (INA) beat Ji Xinpeng (CHN)	7-2, 7-0, 5-7, 7-4	29 min
Group C	4-Pulella Gopichand (IND) beat Richard Vaughan (WAL)	1-7, 7-4, 7-0, 7-3	31 min
Group D	Ong Ewe Hock (MAS) beat Kenneth Jonassen (DEN)	2-7, 7-2, 7-3, 7-0	30 min
Group D	2-Chen Hong (CHN) beat Vladislav Druzchenko (UKR)	7-5, 7-1, 8-6	26 min