Thirteen-year-old Tasnim Mir of Gujarat bagged yet another double this year on the domestic circuit by winning the under-15 and under-17 singles titles at the All India Sub Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament in Raipur on Sunday.
Mir was the top seed in U-15 and had no trouble whatsoever against seventh seed Sakshi Phogat in the final, beating her 21-13, 21-8 in just half an hour. Later, in the final of the U-17 event, where she was seeded 15th, Mir beat 14th seed Kriti Bharadwaj 21-16, 21-9, this time taking only 28 minutes.
This was the third time this year that Mir has won two titles at a single event. She had clinched the U-15 singles and doubles titles at a sub-junior ranking tournament in Hyderabad in January, before doing the same in Nagpur in July.
The U-15 boys’ singles title in Raipur was won by top seed Sankar Muthusamy, who beat Ankit Mondal 21-16, 21-6. The U-17 boys’ singles title was also won by the top seed, Rohan Gurbani, who came from behind to beat second seed Pranav Rao Gandham 15-21, 21-19, 21-18.
Pranav Rao did get his hands on a gold medal eventually as he combined with Sai Vishnu Pullela to win the U-17 boys’ doubles title after defeating Ishaan Bhatnagar and Jaiditya Pratap Singh 21-23, 25-23, 21-15. Pranav and Sai Vishnu were unseeded in the event.
The girls’ doubles U-17 title was won by fourth seeds Sania Sikkandar and Varshini VS, while the U-15 gold went to sixth seeds Hiral Chouhan and Devika Sihag. The U-15 boys’ doubles title was won by fourth seeds Darshan Pujari and Abhinav Thakur.
