CSS- India Club UAE Open
K. Nanda Gopal gave his reputation as one of upcoming talents of Indian badminton a big boost with a double crown at the India Club UAE Open badminton tournament played at the India Club. He walked away with the men’s super league singles crown and then the doubles title, partnering B. Sumeeth Reddy.
Twenty-one-year-old Gopal is a product of the P. Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad and is ranked India’s No 5. He produced a sterling performance in the final to down K. Ajay Kumar 21-19, 21-7.
Kumar is also from the same academy and is ranked No.18 in India. Kurmar started strongly in the first set and raced and was leading by five points, when Gopal lifted his game and clinched the set. In the second set, Gopal was in full flow and wrapped up the set with little effort to prove that he is the worthy winner of the title.
Inspired by his singles’ title win, Gopal then joined Sumeeth Reddy to down Indonesia’s Didi Purwanto and Bahrain’s Jaffer E. Jaffer Ebrahim in the men’s doubles final. Gopal and Reddy won 21-16, 21-14. Incidentally, Ebrahim is one of the most outstanding talents in the Middle East. More than 500 players contested the tournament. Co-support Sponsor, CSS Group was represented by Susanth Shekar, HR Manager, CSS gave away the prizes to the winners of the tournament.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TOURNAMENT
- The tournament was inaugurated on Monday,14th May 2012.
- On an average 25 – 27 matches were played daily for 23 days.
- A record number of 135 matches were played on two weekends, Fridays, 18th& 25th May and 40 matches were played on a weekday, Sat., 26th May.
- Daily crowd: Approximately 300 including Club Members/Badminton Players/ Guests.
- In all the 14 categories, 481 entries were received.
- A total number of 485 matches were played throughout the tournament (so far highest ever on India Club records).
- All the matches were played under the new WBF 21 point-scoring format.
- Players from India, Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesian, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Germany, United Kingdom, Bahrain, China, Syria, Belgium & Denmark took part in the tournament besides the local Indian & Pakistani expats residing in the UAE.
- The Badminton Committee comprised of A. K.Prakashan, Kishore Setpal, Anil Mohan.
- A team of 25 Officials were also set up for the tournament.
- This tournament started in the early 1978.
- International & Olympic Umpire, Apinder Sabharwal umpired the super league matches.
- H. E. Sanjay Verma, Consul General of India, Dubai spoke on the occasion.
- Dr. Ram Buxani, Chairman, India Club also spoke on the occasion.