Arvind Bhatt takes Gopichand
to the distance

India's number one shuttler Pulella Gopichand lived upto his billing as he defeated Karnataka's Arvind Bhatt to book a berth in the men's singles final in the inaugural Harichand memorial badminton tournament in Kanpur on Friday.

In a thrilling semi-final, the 2001 All England champion rallied from a mid-match slump to post a 7-2, 7-0, 7-8, 4-7, 8-7 victory in an hour and 15 minutes.

While Gopichand hardly broke sweat as he took the first two games, he was made to work hard for his points thereafter. Bhatt fought back into the match as he took the third and fourth games to set up a thrilling final game which was also keenly contested, with the players displaying some fine shots.

In the end, it was Gopichand's experience with saw him through.

In the final, Gopichand will meet Sachin Ratti, who beat Siddharth Jain 7-3, 6-8, 7-4 in the second semi-final.

Earlier, in a women's singles semi-final, B R Meenakshi upset top seed P V V Laxmi in straight games 7-1, 7-1, 7-3 in just 26 minutes.

The second semi-final also saw an upset as second seeded Tripti Murugunde of Air India was shown the door by Neelima Choudhary of Andhra Pradesh. Neelima beat Tripti 7-2, 7-5, 4-7, 7-1 in 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, the men's doubles final will see Jaiseel P Ismail and Jaison Xavier clash with Sanav Thomas and V Diju.

Ismail and Xavier beat Marcos Bristow/Rupesh Kumar 4-7, 7-2, 7-5, 2-7, 7-1 in a thrilling one-and-a-half-hour encounter while Thomas and Diju accounted for Vijay Deep Singh and Utsav Mishra 7-4, 8-6, 7-1.

In the mixed doubles final, Bristow teamed up with B R Meenakshi to win the title. They beat Neelima Choudhry and Chetan Anand 7-1, 8-6, 7-5 in 27 minutes.

Yesterday's report
Sachin Ratti shocks Chetan Anand