Rupesh-Sanave triumph at Austria

Rupesh Kumar (right) and Sanave Thomas

India’s best-ever men’s doubles duo Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas emerged victorious at the Austrian International Challenge 2012 beating a Japanese pair in two tense games. The Indian team thus earned 4000 points in the run-up to the Olympics and will see them rise from their current world ranking of 27.

Rupesh and Sanave have been on fire all week, and except for the semifinals, played on Saturday morning, have won all their matches in straight games. The top seeds were stretched by English pair Chris Langridge and Peter Mills in the semis as they lost the first game, but they clambered back to win the next two and enter the final.

The final – against Hiroyuki Saeki and Ryota Taohata — was a tense affair; the Indians eventually prevailing 23-21, 22-20. The Austrian Challenge must come as some solace for the Indian pair, who were dethroned as National Champions last month after a long, unchallenged reign at the top.

Meanwhile, Parupalli Kashyap’s quest for the singles title ended in the semifinals, where he was beaten by Tan Yuhan of Belgium. Kashyap, the top seed, had a good run, beating the likes of Jan Frohlich (Cze), Derek Wong (Sing) and Emil Holst (Den) before running into Yuhan and going down tamely 21-16 21-16.

Among his compatriots, Aditi Mutatkar reached the quarterfinals which she lost – surprisingly – to Turkey’s Yigit Neslihan. Some evidence therefore that even the Turks are no pushovers in this age.

Qualifier Sameer Verma also made it to the quarterfinals, where he ran into the formidable challenge of No.2 seed Yan Kit Chan. He could pose no worries to Chan, as he went down 21-6 21-10. Teammate HS Prannoy was Chan’s earlier victim, having been beaten in the second round 16-21 21-14 21-8.