Seepaul, Cassie set for ‘triple’

Reigning Solo national senior champions Anil Seepaul and Sabrina Cassie are on course to successfully retain their individual badminton crowns. Both champions were involved in the preliminaries and quarterfinals rounds of the Trinidad and Tobago Badminton Association annual Senior Championships play-offs at the Jean Pierre Complex, mucurapo on Monday night.

Three-time champion Seepaul will battle promising Surujadeen Mohammed in the first semi-final encounter while former champion David Lee Kim will be fully tested by rising star Kerwyn Pantin in the other semis. Mohammed, unable to prove himself against Seepaul in the recent TTBA Open championships semi-final because of exhaustion will be a highly motivated player in the showdown.

In the recent TTBA Open championships, Seepaul, despite not being in the best frame of mind and nurturing a slight injury, showed glimpses of his true class and overcame a spirited Pantin in the grand finale. With a series of power smashes and superbly-controlled drop shots, Seepaul recorded an easy 15-1 and 15-1 quarter-final win over Jeremy Lewis while Mohammed disposed of Devon Kublal at 15-2 and 15-3 in another quarter-final contest. Lee Kim upstaged Anderson Morris while Pantin had to pull out all stops to turn back the challenge of newly crowned Junior Under-19 champion Rahul Rampersad who extended his senior counterpart to three sets. Pantin won at 15-6, 12-15 and 15-4.

On the distaff side, seven-time Cassie smashed out Daysha Francis at 11-2 and 11-6 while her doubles partner and major singles rival Zeudi Mack edged out a fired up Kesma Benito in a 10-13, 11-3 and 11-9 in a three-set thriller. Cassie takes on former junior champion Nadine Julien who outplayed Kamasha Robertson 11-2 and 11-0 while Mack will be up against Stephanie Mitchell who toyed with Kimberley Lovero in the other quarter-final winning at 11-1 and 11-3.

On Tuesday night, Seepaul teamed up with former national champion Ronald Clarke and they humbled Shaun Sookdeo and Devon Kublal 15-3 and 15-1 in their doubles quarter-final and must be highly fancied to retain their tandem title once again. This evening they should take care of the Avinash Lakhan and Noor Williams combination while the youthful pair of Mohammed and newly-crowned junior triple champion Rahul Rampersad will be sternly tested by Pantin and Lewis in the other “semis.”

Cassie and mixed doubles partner Clarke showed flashes of brilliance and dominance as they overpowered doubles specialist David Lee Kim, a seven-time senior champion, and former junior champion Nadine Julien by a 15-6 and 15-7 margin. They are down to meet Mohammed and Mitchell pair in the “semis” while Seepaul and Mack will tackle Pantin and Benito in the other “mixed semis?.” The Cassie/Mack pair will be up against the Mitchell/Julien combination in the women’s doubles final. In the round-robin “semis”, the Cassie/Mack team downed the Francis/Lovero duo at 15-0 and 15-0 while the Mitchell/Julien combination stopped Francis/Lovero at 15-3 and 15-5. All the champions will be selected to represent the country at the annual Caribbean Regional Badminton Championships (CAREBACO), which will be hosted locally by the TTBA during the month of July.