The odds were stacked against him but Kerala’s Govind Krishna defied them all and beat top-seeded Dhruv Rawat (Uttarakhand) in straight games inside 26 minutes to enter the boys’ singles quarterfinals in the badminton competition at the inaugural Khelo India School Games at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here on Tuesday.
Having just recovered from a wrist injury that kept him away from the courts for a couple of weeks, Govind Krishna, son of Ernakulam Additional District & Sessions Judge C Krishna Kumar, played without inhibition against the lad from Almora who is ranked 30 slots above him at No. 3 in the Badminton Association of India’s boys U19 rankings.
Besides the rankings, Govind Krishna did not let either the cold or the draught or the bright lights in the iconic stadium affect his composure. He quickly deciphered that Dhruv Rawat was playing under some pressure and was unable to bring his A game to the court. He played his game, mixing up his strokes to often catch the top-seeded played on the wrong foot.
Arunachal Pradesh’s wild card entrant Laa Takum, who has been training at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bengaluru for five years now, overcame a slight distraction in the final stages of his contest with R Vikas Prabhu to become the other unseeded players to book a berth in the boys’ quarterfinals.
The results
Boys singles (second round): Govind Krishna (Kerala) beat (1) Dhruv Rawat (Uttarakhand) 21-18, 21-15; (6) Koya Sai Charan (Telangana) beat Anush Rav Garg (Haryana) 21-11, 21-; Laa Takum (Arunachal Pradesh) beat R Vikas Prabhu (Tamil Nadu) 21-9, 24-22. (7) Aakash Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) beat Ranjan Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 19-21, 21-12, 21-8; (5) K Sathish Kumar (Tamil Nadu) beat R Pranay (Andhra Pradesh) 15-21, 21-8, 21-11; (4) Maisnam Meiraba (Manipur) beat Tejas Kallokar (Karnataka) 21-14, 21-12; (8) Rohan Gurbani (Maharashtra) beat Jayant Rana (Haryana) 21-13, 2-17; (2) Amit Rathore (Madhya Pradesh) beat Arjun Rehani (Delhi) 23-21, 22-20.
Girls singles (second round): (1) Malvika Bansod (Maharashtra) beat Varsha Venkatesh (Kerala) 21-8, 2-11; (8) Mansi Singh (Uttar Pradesh) beat Nikita (Haryana) 21-16, 17-21, 21-11; (4) Unnati Bisht (Uttarakhand) beat Debahuti Lahon (Assam) 21-10, 21-8; (6) Trisha Hegde (Karnataka) beat Tanishka Deshpande (Maharashtra) 21-16, 21-18; (7) Amolika Singh (Uttar Pradesh) beat Prerna Alvekar (Maharashtra) 21-17, 21-19; Alfiya Basari (Karnataka) beat Anushka (Rajasthan) 21-19, 21-19; (5) Aashi Rawat (Uttar Pradesh) beat T Kavia Rasi (Tamil Nadu) 21-7, 2-18; (2) Aakarshi Kashyap (Chattisgarh) beat K Vennalsairi (Andhra Pradesh) 21-6, 2-15.