Imam Adi had to dig deep to get the better of his familiar foe Mohammed Munawar as the Indonesian retained his men’s India Club UAE Open Badminton title on Friday.
The two players know each other fairly well who are team-mates at Prime Star Academy in Dubai and that proved to provide a thriller at India Club last night. Adi prevailed to win 2-1 (24-22, 8-21, 21-13) to add to his UAE Open he clinched last year.
Despite being defending champion, Adi felt he was fortunate to add to his trophy cabinet.
“I felt I am very lucky to win because he played very well and he made it very difficult for me,” said the Indonesian. Both players started the final brightly with the scores tied at 19-19 before Adi found his rhythm to take the first game.
But Munawar fought back bravely in the second to lead 11-4 and soon built a 10-point advantage.
There was no looking back for the 20-year-old as scores of 17-4 and 18-6 were in his favour before wrapping the game. The decider was a tight contest, with the scores tied on many occasions. At 5-5, Adi built a four-point cushion at 9-5. Munawar restored it to 9-8. But then it was all one-way traffic as Adi took charge at 17-10.
Munawar was disappointed by the loss but was proud of his efforts having gone through the pain-barrier after a slight leg injury.
“We know each other very well so I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy match,” he said. “But I did quite well and I am really happy to have played in this final.”
Merely after a half-an-hour break, Munawar was back on court with Sunjith Subramanian in the Men’s Doubles. But there was more disappointment for the 20-year-old, losing to Kidambi Nandagopal and Valiya Veetil Diju 2-0 (21-16, 21-10).
“Doubles is pretty fast and I’m now a bit down,” said Munawar. “They are a strong pair and we knew that before entering the court and I don’t think I played my best.”
The victory for Nandagopal and Diju meant it will be a happy journey when they travel back to India.
“It was quite comfortable for us,” said Nandagopal. “We had a slow start but once we got back into the game, we were in control and gained a lot of confidence. Any opponent in the final is always going to be tough and it’s not going to be easy so we were quite prepared for the finals and we put on a great show.”
There was something to celebrate for Ketan Chahal and girls U-15 and U-14 winner Tanisha Crasto, who sealed the Mixed Doubles title with victory over Narendran Subramaniam and Isabelle Villaran.
Gujarat-based Chahal said: “We started off slowly but we got our game together and put our opponents under pressure. Tanisha played absolutely great and I have to give full credit to her because even though she’s 13, she really is a fantastic player.”
