Badminton News
At $50K Russian Open Grand Prix 2009, Vladivostok

[R1] Aparna Balan (IND)/ Shruti Kurien (IND) bt Anastasia Vendina (RUS)/ Polina Makkoveeva (RUS) 21-8 21-7
[QF] Aparna Balan (IND)/ Shruti Kurien (IND) bt Anastasia Chervyakova (RUS)/ Natalia Perminova (RUS) 22-20 21-10

[SF] Aparna Balan (IND)/ Shruti Kurien (IND) vs Valeria Sorokina (RUS)/ Nina Vislova (RUS)

Impressed with Aparna and Shruti, who r decided to participate in this Russian Grand Prix (our only entry in this GP) ... As expected very less challenging entry so this tournament can help them to push their ranking inside top-40 ... And they r taking advantage of weak draw and r in semis.
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Yonex $5K Czech International 2009, Brno

[Q1] Gayatri Vartak (IND,273) bt Martina Vacková (CZE,434) 21-10 21-9 [Q2] Gayatri Vartak (IND,273) bt (7) Orsolya Varga (HUN,213) 21-18 21-16

[R1] (2) Sayali Gokhale (IND,71) bt Andrea Zvorc (CRO,131) 21-15 21-12
[R1] (Q) Gayatri Vartak (IND,273) bt (8) Neha Pandit (IND,85) 21-18 14-21 21-13
[R1] Trupti Murgunde (IND,105) bt Elisa Chanteur (FRA,90) 21-15 21-12
[R1] Aditya Prakash (IND,164) bt (Q) Maciej Kowalik (POL,405) 21-8 21-9

[R2] Aditya Prakash (IND,164) vs (5) Jan Vondra (CZE,76)
[R2] Trupti Murgunde (IND,105) vs Elisa Chanteur (FRA,90)

Good that BAI giving our second string players chance to play in European events which help them to improve their ranking.

And good start for Aditya and Trupti in this International series tournament ... Gayatri also scored suprise win over her senior seeded partner in 3 games ... Sayali started with comfortable win.