KUWAIT CITY, Nov 29: Some of the best badminton players in the country were in action this week — full of mouthwatering clashes, outstanding smashes and cross court drop shots — in the Indian Badminton Association - Kuwait (IBAK) tournament at the Saad Al Awzi in Salwa Friday. When the day’s matches were over it was found that two pairs —Suresh & Faheem and Dr Mani & Vivek – were leading in the two sections of the Blue Tier, the top-most category of the tournament. The tournament proper was preceded by an inauguration ceremony of the event and an awards ceremony for the IBAK Masters Cup which ended recently. The simple, yet inspiring ceremony, opened the day’s proceedings in the presence of a large number of badminton players, fans, IBAK officials and guests. The tournament was inaugurated Mahmoud Dashti, Director of Schho Affairs, Hawalli region. He also gave away the prizes for the IBAK Masters Cup, which was a ranking doubles tournament. The IBAK officials say that the rankings will be announced shortly. The current IBAK tournament is being conducted under 4 categories – Blue Tier — sections A and B, Red Tier-advanced—Team A and B, Red Tier-Intermediate and Green Tier with the Blue Tier the top category and the Green Tier the lowest.

The Blue Tier is the professional group with two sections while the Red Tier has been divided into two groups to ensure that all the players in this category get an equal chance at winning the title.
The Green Tier is being contested by those men who have been upgraded from the beginners’ group (Yellow Tier), ladies and children who have picked up enough badminton skills to take on the men.
The organizers are offering a prize-money of KD 100 foe the winning team and KD 50 foe the runners up. The tournament has already roped in around 100 players from across the badminton fraternity in the country but the number is expected to increase on the coming Friday when those who were participating in other tournament join the IBAK event. Meanwhile, the IBAK officials have announced that an 8-member IBAK badminton team – with a standby player and also an under-15 player from the very successful coaching Module-1 Tournament — will take part in an Invitational event in the Maldives.

With this participation in the Maldives, IBAK efforts are aimed encouraging all the young players in their care and promoting badminton both in Kuwait and outside the country.
This team is being sponsored by Wataniya Telecom and Taiba Hospital. IBAK officials thank these sponsors for supporting this event, which has been scheduled for the third week of December.
The IBAK officials have also announced that they are planning to organize a ranking singles tournament and are also planning to invite foreign teams to take part in an invitation tournament.
In this tournament, the pair which wins their matches in two sets is awarded three points and the losers get nothing but if the match is stretched to three sets then the winner is awarded two points and the loser one.

Blue Tier – Team A
Suresh and Fahim were in great form to finish on the top of this category after winning all the three matches they played that day to collect seven points.
Two pairs – Samson & Febin and Noor & Sunil — were so far sharing second place with similar records as they had won one match and lost the other in the two matches for which they had taken to the courts.

Blue Tier Team A Standings
Names P W L Pts
Suresh & Faheem 3 3 0 7
Samson & Febin 2 1 1 3
Noor & Sunil 2 1 1 3
Jijo John & Bastian 1 0 1 1
Roman & Maxi 2 0 2 1
Anchal & Jim 0 0 0 0
Danta &Yan 0 0 0 0
Anton & Karzan 0 0 0 0

Blue Tier – B
Mani and Vivek took the lead in Blue Tier Team B after winning three and losing one of their four matches to amass nine points while Bader and Arif N.N were second with two wins and two losses from which they collected six points.
In this week’s matches, Dr Mani and Vivek thrashed Mathew and Varun 21-12, 21-15 before going on to lose to Bader and Arif 19-21, 22-23.
Dr Mani and Vivek came back into the tournament after they crushed Saju Thomas and Samson 21-14, 21-14 but they only left the courts after a very
close battle in which they overcame Shyam and James 22-20, 21-19.
In the other matches, Bader and Arif demolished Mathew and Varun 21-12, 21-21-7 while Shyam and James took Saju Thomas and Samson to task with a 21-13, 21-18 victory.

Blue Tier Team B Standings
Names P W L Pts
Dr Mani & Vivek 4 3 1 9
Bader & Arif N.N 2 2 0 6
Shyam & James 2 1 1 3
Saju Thomas & Samson 2 0 2 0
Chandra & Jabbar 0 0 0 0
Hanafi & Sampurna 0 0 0 0
Mathew & Varun 2 0 2 0

Red Advanced – Team A

Ranjith and Pramod were the best in this category after the first day of matches as they had collected the maximum six points with victories in both the games they played.
Tinu and Syju were in second place so far with four points after they won one match and lost the other in the two games that they played.
Ranjith and Pramod were in great form when they Raja and Jovin 21-18, 21-12 before they took to the courts later in the afternoon to tame Samuel and Ronnie 21-16, 21-14.
In the other matches of this category, Tinu and Syju hammered Shyam and Lekha 21-10, 21-17; Imesh and Anish overcame Rogy and Anish 21-18, 21-18; Samuel and Ronnie took Shyam and Lekha to task with a 21-13, 21-9 thrashing; and Raja and Jovin showed a lot of skills and determination to overcome Tinu and Syju 23-22, 14-21, 21-17.

Red Advanced – Team A Standings
Names P W L Pts
Ranjith & Pramod 2 2 0 6
Tinu & Syju 2 1 1 4
Imesh & Anish 1 1 0 3
Samuel & Ronnie 2 1 1 3
Raja & Jovin 2 1 1 2
Rogy & Davis 1 0 1 0
Shaym & Lekha 2 0 2 0

Red Advanced — Team B
Pradeep and Sanal joined hands in this category to win two of their three matches while they lost the third game for a total of six points to top this category.
But doing very well were the pair of Noufal and Deepak who had won both their matches and collected five points to sit in second place .

Red Advanced Team B Standings
Names P W L Pts
Pradeep & Sanal 3 2 1 6
Noufal & Deepak 2 2 0 5
Sajith & Jijo 3 1 2 2
Mohahammed & Hari 2 0 2 2
Sanu & Binal 0 0 0 0
Red Intermediate
In this category two pairs — Tom & Ranjith and Prasad & Saju – were at the top with two wins in the two matches each that they had played for a maximum of six points .
Rasheed and Sibi had also won both their games but they managed to collect five points to sit in second place after the first day of the tournament.

Red Intermediate Standings
Names P W L Pts
Tom & Ranjith 2 2 0 6
Prasad & Saju 2 2 0 6
Rasheed & Sibi 2 2 0 5
Anil & Anoop 3 1 2 4
Salim & Sajith 2 1 1 3
Santhosh & Giri 1 0 1 0
Baburaj & Steve 2 0 2 0
Shalu John & Relin 2 0 2 0

Green Tier
In this category, the junior-most in this tournament, Anirudh and Gokul were showing the others how things should be done by winning all the three matches for which they took to the courts for eight points and the top spot.
Following close on the leaders trail, were Saikhrishnan and Nithin with seven points after they won two of their three matches and lost the third.
Anirudh and Gokul started of the tournament with a bang when they hammered Nikhil and Anzeem 21-11, 21-8 before going to inflict a similar fate on Neha and Shaina whom they routed 21-7, 21-12.
Anirudh and Gokul were, however, involved in a very tough last match when they were stretched to the limit by Saikhrishnan and Nithin before they could win 21-15, 18-21, 21-15.
Saikhrishnan and Nithin won their two matches on Friday when they first demolished Nikhil and Anzeem 21-10, 21-5 before brushing aside Vineeth and Sayooj 21-12, 21-15.
In the other matches of this category played that day, Vineeth and Sayooj fought back to blast their way past Shoba and Preetha 21-4, 21-11 while Neha and Shaina also went home with a win when they beat Vineeth and Sayooj 21-15, 21-19.

Green Tier-Standings
Names P W L Pts
Anirudh & Gokul 3 3 0 8
Saikrishnan & Nithin 3 2 1 7
Vineeth & Sayooj 3 2 1 3
Neha & Shaina 2 1 1 3
Shobha & Preetha 1 0 1 0
Nikhil & Anzeem 2 0 2 0