Tamil Nadu’s Amalraj crowned champion

Amalraj, who had won two zonal titles last year, began well and kept himself in the hunt throughout, particularly after the semifinal win over longtime friend and Chennai mate G. Sathiyan 4-3. As compared to the earlier outing, the final against southpaw Sanil Shetty was rather easy despite the two going at a good pace.

Though Amalraj opened with a first-game loss, he was quick enough size up his rival’s game plan and hit the groove nicely. In the fourth, however, Shetty made good efforts to put up some fight and even managed to extend Amalraj a bit. But once Amalraj led 3-1, it was all over bar the shouting for Shetty as he was allowed the liberty of just two points in the fifth game.

India witnessed another fruitful day at the Canada Open as all its shuttlers, including Ajay Jayaram and H S Prannoy, entered the third round of the USD 55,000 Grand Prix badminton tournament, here. Top seed Jayaram struggled past Canada’s Martin Giuffre 17-21 21-17 21-13 to set up a fight with Austria’s David Obernosterer. Second seed H S Prannoy also made it to the pre-quarters after a hard-fought 13-21 21-11 21-15 win over Sweden’s Mattias Borg.  RMV Gurusaidutt also stormed into the next round after an easy 21-8 21-6 win over local shuttler Jonathan Lai.