Sourabh Verma and Sai Uttejitha Rao put themselves in pole position for a spot in India’s badminton squad for the Asian Games after reaching their second straight All India Senior Ranking Tournament final on Saturday.

Verma and Rao, who had won the Bengaluru tournament last week, have now also made the final in Hyderabad. The Badminton Association of India had announced that the squad for the Asian Games will be picked on the basis of performances in both these tournaments.

Playing on home turf at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy, Verma had all the support he needed as he beat one of India’s brightest badminton prospects, Lakshya Sen, in the semi-finals in three games.

Cheered on by the home crowd, Verma started the match as the stronger of the two shuttlers and had a 11-8 lead at the interval of the first game, before Sen fought back to level it at 16-16. However, Verma won five of the next six points to take the first game 21-17.

The 16-year-old Sen upped the ante in the second game and took a 11-7 lead into the interval, before Verma fought back to make it 13-13. However, in what was a reversal of the first game, as Sen won eight of the next 10 points to win the second game 21-15 to force a decider.

Verma got off to a great start in the third game, taking a 5-0 lead before Sen fought back to make it 9-9. However, Sen could not take the lead in the match as Verma dug into his reserves and maintained a gap between himself and the teenager till the end, eventually winning the third game 21-15.

The match lasted an hour and seven minutes.

In the final, Sourabh will take on another Gopichand academy graduate in Siril Verma, who beat Rahul Yadav C 21-18, 21-19.

Over in the women’s singles, Uttejitha was also playing on home turf but did not have as much support as Verma did. Reason? She was playing against chief national coach Gopichand’s daughter Gayatri. As has been the case throughout this tournament, the 15-year-old Gayatri was egged on by her fellow academy pupils, who seemed to have temporarily forgotten that Uttejitha too was one of theirs.

However, the 19-year-old Uttejitha used her experience and her vocal chords, loudly shrieking after every single point she won in the match. She did not need the support. She was her own cheerleader. As the match progressed, Uttejitha managed to silence the crowd by completely dominating her 15-year-old opponent.

Uttejitha wrapped up the match 21-14, 21-18 in just 39 minutes to book a spot in the final, where she will face 18-year-old Ashmita Chaliha. The Assam girl fought back from a game down to beat junior national champion Aakarshi Kashyap 19-21, 21-17, 21-12 in the second semi-final.

Sai Uttejitha Rao beat Gayatri Gopichand in straight games (Image: Jaideep Vaidya/Scroll.in)

Rutaparna-Arathi bow out

In the women’s doubles category, new pair Rutaparna Panda and Arathi Sara Sunil could not continue their dream run as they were defeated by the experienced Prajakta Sawant and Sanyogita Ghorpade in three games. Rutaparna and Arathi had won the title in Bengaluru, which was their first tournament together as a pair, and were one of the favourites to win in Hyderabad as well.

They started off well, winning the first game 21-18. However, a poor start in the second and third games – they conceded a 0-4 lead in both – was enough for Sawant and Ghorpade to capitalise on. The India internationals won the match 18-21, 21-14, 21-8 to reach the final, where they will take on Aparna Balan and Sruthi KP.

Men’s doubles top seeds Arun George and Sanyam Shukla reached the final, where they will face the upcoming pair of Dhruv Kapila and Krishna Prasad Garaga, who were the runners up in Bengaluru. Dhruv also reached his second straight mixed doubles final along with Meghana J. They will take on Nandagopal K and Sanjana Santosh in the summit clash.

This also means that the 18-year-old Dhruv has reached the men’s and mixed doubles finals in both Bengaluru and Hyderabad.