Second seed Malvika Bansod and ninth seed Maisnam Meiraba won the girls’ and boys’ singles titles respectively at the All India Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament in Chandigarh on Sunday. This is one of two tournaments that has been picked as selection trials for the world junior championships in Markham, Canada, in November.
Fourth seeds Dhruv Kapila and Krishna Prasad Garaga won the boys’ doubles title, while Aditi Bhatt and Tanisha Crasto bagged the girls’ doubles gold. Top seeds Sri Krishna Sai Kumar Podile and Srishti Jupudi won the mixed doubles title.
Bansod, 17, beat sixth seed Purva Barve in a marathon girls’ singles final that lasted an hour and six minutes. The Nagpur girl won the match 21-17, 21-23, 21-17. She had beaten third seed Gayatri Gopichand Pullela in a thrilling semi-final match 28-26, 21-19 on Saturday.
Meiraba, 15, also needed three games to get past Kiran George, his fellow trainee at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, in the boys’ singles final. Meiraba won the final 23-21, 16-21, 21-14.
This was the third three-game match Meiraba had played in the tournament. In the semi-finals, he was stretched by the unseeded Tharun M 21-19, 12-21, 21-15. In the third round, the Manipur boy had to come back from a game down to beat third seed Priyanshu Rajawat 8-21, 21-16, 21-18.
Dhruv and Krishna were not troubled by second seeds Manjit Singh and Dingku Sing, winning the boys’ doubles final 21-14, 21-14. Aditi and Tanisha also won their final against Preethi K and Priya Devi in straight games, but not without a fight – 24-22, 21-13. Sri Krishna and Srishti also won the mixed doubles final against Sai Pratheek Krishna Prasad and Ashwini Bhat K in straight games – 21-18, 21-16.
The second selection tournament for the World Juniors will begin in Punchkula, Haryana, on Tuesday.