Qatar-based Arun Vijayakumar hardly broke sweat as he handed a masterclass to Abdulla Shajeer, his young opponent from Dubai, and walked away with the top honour in the 37th edition of the UAE Open Badminton tournament at India Club.
In a one-sided final, the experience of 32-year-old Vijayakumar shone through as he beat the 14-year-old Shajeer in straight games, 21-8, 21-13.
Vijayakumar, who represented Kerala in various age categories before moving to Qatar, said he was feeling a bit tired after playing 10 matches over the previous two days, but was helped by the errors of Shajeer.
Even though Shajeer looked a bit overawed by the occasion and his rival, it was an amazing run by the 10th grade student of Our Own Indian High School, Al Quoz, nonetheless.
Vijayakumar, the 2009 Bahrain Open champion, controlled the court with ease and kept moving Shajeer where he pleased.
The only time he slacked was in the second game, when Shajeer captured eight points on the trot to move to 9-13, the closest he ever got to Vijayakumar.
“I am very happy with my win. It looked easy but there is never any easy match. I was helped a lot by the fact that he made mistakes. He is a young man who is a good player and has a bright future. Just that today was not his day,” said Vijayakumar, who walked away with the winner’s cheque of Dh3,000, a trophy and a pair of Carrera sunglasses.
The ladies singles was no competition at all, with Amrita Kuttikrishnan not required to play for her trophy after Jolywin Rodil failed to show up for her final match.
“That’s not how I wanted to win,” said Amrita, who works at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi and plays at the Indian Social and Cultural Centre there.
“I have been very serious about my game for the past couple of years and as I progressed through the tournament, I was really looking forward to the chance of playing the final.”
All eyes were on Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas, the doubles specialists from India, and they did not disappoint the packed house.
Kumar and Thomas are nine-time Indian national champions and even though they had less than 15 minutes break between their semi-finals and final, they were just too classy for the young Dubai pairing of Mohammed Munnawar and Alfaz Alam.
After winning 21-13, 21-13, Rupesh said: “I don’t want to sound arrogant, but we play day in and day out, and we have such great coaches like Gopichand (former All-England champion) and superb facilities all over the country.
"These guys play mostly for fun in the evenings and yet, I thought they played very well. I think the level of badminton here in the UAE is improving, but it will take some more time before they start producing results.”
The best match of the day was the Veterans (over 45 years) Doubles, which was played for close to 50 minutes before Roby Verghese and Abdul Salam won a see-saw contest 22-20, 7-21, 30-28.
The tournament was sponsored by Manipal University, Dubai, and attracted as many as 600 entries this year as compared to 459 in 2013.
RESULTS
Men’s singles: Arun Vijayakumar bt Abdulla Shaheer 21-8, 21-13
Men’s doubles: Rupesh Kumar/Sanave Thomas bt Mohammed Munnawar/Alfaz Alam 21-13, 21-13
Ladies singles: Amrita Kuttikrishnan bt Jolywin Rodil w/o
Mixed doubles: Mohammed Munnawar/Teena Mary Cherian bt Avinash Sureshkumar/ Amrita Kuttikrishnan 21-14, 21-19
Masters (over 40 years) doubles: James Verghese/Sajayan PB bt Abdul Majeed K/Alamsyah M Masra 21-10, 21-17
Veterans (over 45 years) singles: Xavier Raphael bt Roby Verghese 21-12, 21-9
Veterans (over 45 years) doubles: Roby Verghese/Abdul Salam AA bt Lalmony KS/Manoj Matthews 22-20, 7-21, 30-28
Veterans (over 45 years) mixed doubles: Pawan Kumar/Teena Mary Cherian bt Clifford Castro/Jenalyn Dimaculangan 21-11, 21-15
