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Gopi breezes into second round
P Gopichand made an encouraging start to the defence of his All-England title with a victory in only half an hour over England's Mark Burgess.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 08:27 AM IST
Read Time: 1 min
Birmingham:
Pullela Gopichand, playing his first tournament in almost three months, made an encouraging start to the defence of his All-England title with a victory in only half an hour.
Gopichand beat England's player Mark Burgess 7-3, 7-0, 7-4 - an impressive effort for a man who has been suffering from a stress fracture last year and was unsure he would be able to defend the title.
However, his movement looked good. From 5-3 in the first game to the early stages of the third, Gopi increased the pace to a level with which Burgess could not cope.
But Gopichand was not entirely satisfied. "I am feeling a bit better, but it has been a painful week," he said of his comeback from injury.
"The court is a little hard and I was worried about that, but my performance was ok. Mark was good and I have never seen him before and it is always tricky with the new seven-up scoring," he added. (PTI)
Topics mentioned in this article
Badminton
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