Experienced Neha Pandit and up-and-coming Kiran George bagged the women’s and men’s singles titles in the All India Senior Ranking Badminton tournament in Bengaluru on Sunday.
Pandit, seeded sixth, got the better of 16th seed G Vrushali 21-18, 15-21, 21-19 in an hour and five minutes to clinch the women’s crown, while the unseeded Kiran had to come back from a game down to defeat fourth seed Harshit Aggarwal 15-21, 21-19, 21-19.
Kiran’s elder brother Arun bagged the men’s doubles crown along with Sanyam Shukla, as the top-seeded pair defeated K Chaitanya Reddy and T Hemanagendra Babu 21-14, 12-21, 21-14 in the last match of the day.
Arundhati Pantawane, the 2011 National Games women’s singles gold medallist who is making a comeback to the circuit after a knee injury in doubles, had to settle for the runners-up spot in mixed doubles after she pulled a thigh muscle.
Pantawane and Shlok Ramchandran had done well to reach the summit clash after coming through the qualifying rounds and looked favourites to clinch the title when they took the opening game rather easily against K Nandagopal and Mahima Aggarwal. However, the injury forced them to concede the match 11-21 21-13 12-3.
Sakshi Phogat wins u-13 girl’s singles title
In Margao, Goa, Sakshi Phogat became the first player from Rajasthan to win a national ranking tournament when she defeated top seed Tara Shah 21-16, 7-21, 21-14 to clinch the girls’ U-13 singles title.
Tasnim Mir of Gujarat bagged the girls’ Under-15 crown defeating local hope Tanisha Castro 21-14, 21-14 in a rather one-sided encounter.
In the boys event, Pranav Rao Gandham bagged a double crown in the u-15 category. The Telangana shuttler first hammered S Rithvik Sanjeevi 21-9, 21-15 before teaming up with Sai Vishnu Pullela, son of Pullela Gopichand, to beat V Suhas and S Chiranjeevi Reddy 21-16, 21-14 for the boy’s doubles crown.