Rising Indian badminton players Aakarshi Kashyap and Kiran George continued their fine form in the domestic circuit to bag the top honours in the singles event at the All India Senior Ranking tournament in Vijayawada on Sunday. This was the second singles title of the year for both the shuttlers.
Third seed Aakarshi got the better of seventh-seeded Anura Prabhudesai in the girl’s singles summit clash cruising to a comfortable 21-12, 21-16 victory.
On the other hand, Kiran, who won his first title after a two-year drought in April, rallied from a game down to defeat eighth seed Siril Verma 21-9, 15-21, 21-11 in a contest that lasted almost an hour.
“It’s a big win. This is my second senior tournament victory this year, so it will definitely give me a boost to work harder and perform better,” Kiran said after the victory.
Quarter finalist at last week’s Azerbaijan International, Maneesha Kukkapalli and Rutuparna Panda continued their fine run as they staged an upset to eke out the current national champions and third seeds Shikha Gautam and Ashwini Bhat.
With both teams breathing down their opponent’s necks in the first game, the pair of Maneesha and Rutuparna stepped up to the cause to secure the gold without dropping any games at 23-21, 21-10.
In the men’s doubles finals, top-seeded pair of Krishna Prasad and Dhruv Kapila continued their domination to stave off a stiff challenge from Arjun MR and Shlok Ramachandran to win 17-21, 22-20, 21-16 in a hard-fought contest. This was the pair’s third MD title, having previously won in Kozhikode and Bengaluru Ranling tournaments.
It was double joy for Dhruv, who has been in sublime form as he also lifted the mixed doubles (XD U19) crown with partner Meghana Jakkampudi outclassing Shlok Ramachandran and Rutuparna Panda 17-21;22-20,21-16- in a close fight that lasted more than an hour. This win marked Dhurv Kapila’s cumulative fourth doubles title of the year.