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METROPLUS

VARIETY

HYDERABAD

THE HINDU

Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015 on a high note

While women sportspersons from the city excelled at international events, men didnt rise up to expectations
V.V. SUBRAHMANYAM

cursory glance at
some of the international sports feats
from Hyderabadis
reminds us that women again
held centrestage in 2015.
Tennis ace Sania Mirza
made the city proud with her
outstanding show with 10 titles (partnering Swiss great
Martina Hingis) including
two Grand Slams. Most importantly, having scaled the
summit World No. 1 in
womens doubles in April,
she retained that position by
yearend also.
Saina Nehwal has not set
the badminton circuit on fire
but served repeated reminders about her stature as one of
the premier shuttlers in the
world by reaching the All England final, the World championship final to be the
first-ever Indian woman to
achieve this feat besides winning a couple of major events.
Not far behind in the big
league of womens badminton was P.V. Sindhu who
completed a rare hat trick of
title triumphs in the Macau
Open defeating Japans Minatsu Mitani in the final.
However, she had the disappointment of losing in the Indonesian Open quarterfinals
this year.
In womens doubles badminton, Gutta Jwala (along
with Ashwini Ponappa) continues to be a force to reckon
with, winning the Canadian
Open and reaching the US
Open semis. The yearend
world ranking of No. 14 for
this formidable doubles player also reflects the yawning
gap between them and the
rest of the contenders in this
category and why they continue to be the best medal
hopes in the coming Olympics in womens doubles.
Another young tennis player Yadlapalli Pranjala has
shown promise having won

WINNING SMILES Yadlapalli Pranjala , Saina Nehwal, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa, P.V. Sindhu

the prestigious WTA Future

Stars (under-16) singles title
in Singapore.
Dronavalli Harika, a quiet
achiever, has become the
first-ever Indian to win the
FIDE World Online womens
blitz championship last
month. This former Asian
womens champion also
clinched a bronze in the
World championship womens category.
Far away from the big guns,
diminutive paddlers Akula
Sreeja and Naina Jaiswal are
making a mark in table tennis
having played a key role in
helping the Indian team win
medals in the South Asian ju-

nior and Cadet Table Tennis

Championship and Junior
Nationals respectively.
In weightlifting, one of the
standout performances has
been the 15-year-old Warangal girl Thuram Priyadarshini
winning gold in the Pune

Commonwealth championship in 44 kg.

Among the men, shooter
Gagan Narang stays in the
hunt for that Olympics gold
by booking his slot to the Rio
Olympics winning the 50 m
rifle prone bronze in the

World Cup this year.

In a way, much was expected from 22-year-old Kidambi
Srikanth who was ranked
World No.3 in June, after he
shocked two-time Olympic
and five-time World Champion Lin Dan in the trium-

phant campaign in the last

years China Open. But, he
had to be content with Swiss
Open Grand Prix and the India Open titles but finished
the year with the Indonesian
Super
Series
final
appearance.

In the case of 29-year-old

Parupalli Kashyap, the firstever Indian to reach the
mens singles quarterfinal in
the Olympics (2012 edition),
it was misfortune in the form
of a calf muscle tear which
put him off the circuit just
when he was peaking after a
grand start to the year by winning the Swiss Open Grand
Prix and the India Open titles.
One of the other bright
spots from Hyderabad was
the 15-year-old A.S.S. Siril
Varma who bagged silver in
the World junior badminton
championship, again the
first-ever Indian boy to reach
thus far in Peru.
In chess, Pentyala Harikrishna hogged the limelight
for all the right reasons and
he believes that 2015 has been
one of his best and takes pride
in being the second highest
rated player (ELO2743) from
India after the former world

champion
Viswanathan
Anand.
Tennis star Saketh Myneni
has made it to the Davis Cup
squad again and has been performing consistently in the
circuit to merit attention.
On the coaching front, Ismail Baig continues to train
his rowers to stunning performances in international
meets while SAI athletics
coach Nagapuri Ramesh has
virtually given a second life
to gifted young athlete Dutee
Chand who fought against the
IAAF regulations on hyperandrogenism successfully
and is back in contention to
earn a slot for the Rio Olympics in 200 m.
However, there was nothing much to write about Hyderabad cricket as the Ranji
squad continues to be in
Group C with a second position from the bottom in the
final standings.

In weightlifting, one
of the standout
performances came
from the 15-year-old
Warangal girl
Thuram
Priyadarshini, who
won gold in the
Commonwealth
championship, held
in Pune, in 44 kg.

Rock you like a hurricane

The top Indian rock bands that made
music this year

ANURAG TAGAT

Mute the Saint Delhi-based

18-year-old sitarist Rishabh
Seen has been racking up the
hits for covering metal songs
by the likes of Animals as
Leaders and Meshuggah on
his sitar, but the real test
came with his all new Indian
classical progressive metal
band Mute The Saint.
While their first single The
Fall of Sirius received a few
mixed reviews, well save our
final verdict for when their
debut EP releases in February.

Top five releases

Blushing Satellite
Blushing Satellite EP
If you want to know what
puts music from Bangalore
on the map, its the sense of
experimentation and offering
something fresh. You dont
need to look further than
Blushing Satellite, their first
self-titled release touching
upon
everything
from
smooth R&B and jazz to triphop.
Thermal and a Quarter
The Scene
Bruce Lee Mani, Leslie
Charles and Rajeev Rajagopal
need
no
introduction.
Championing straight up
rock for the last two decades,
Thermal and a Quarter
released their latest album
The Scene to offer comedic
commentary on everything
from social media desperados
(Like Me) to the explosion of
electronic
dance
music
(MEDs).
Shepherd Stereolithic
Riffalocalypse/Bevar Sea
Invoke the Bizarre/
CM
YK

Inner Sanctum Legions

Awake
Its a three-way tie if we
have to think about the most
memorable metal albums
released this year. Shepherd
introduced their sludgy,
muddy psychedelic heavy
rock, while Bevar Sea trudged
forward with even slower,
murkier doom music and
death/thrash metal band
Inner Sanctum took things a
notch higher with an album
you can really stomp around
to.
Blackstratblues The
Universe Has a Strange
Sense of Humour
Mumbai-based guitarist
Warren Mendonsa finally put
together his years-old live
staples such as Anandamide
and Folkish Three into an
album after making fans wait
for five years since 2009s The
New Album. No one was mad
at Mendonsa, though, with
songs such as Renaissance
Mission really hitting the
sweet spot for anyone who
loves blues and instrumental
rock.
Aswekeepsearching
Khwaab
What started out as
Ahmedabad
producerguitarist
and
vocalist
Uddipan Sarmahs post-rock
project
turned
into
something much heavier and
emotional when his band
Aswekeepsearching released
their second album Khwaab.
Songs like B-303 and What
If? have been some of the
best crescendo music youll
hear performed live, with the
band touring on the album
across the country and even
Russia.
HY-HY