Malvika Bansod and Mithun Manjunath registered convincing straight games victories to clinch the women and men’s singles titles respectively while the mixed doubles combination of Rohan Kapoor and Sanjana Santosh bagged their second straight All India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament crown on Thursday.
In the women’s singles final, Bansod upset top seed and last week’s senior ranking tournament winner Aakarshi Kashyap 21-15, 21-9 in 42 minutes while Mithun stopped former world junior No. 1 Aditya Jos’i’s run from the qualifying round 21-15, 21-4 in the men’s singles summit clash.
On a day when all the finals were decided in straight games, the wildcard combination of Kapoor and Sanjana were the only winners from the Chennai leg last week to finish on the top of the podium once again as they packed off Dhruv Rawat and Shikha Gautam 21-14, 21-13 in just 33 minutes to underline their overall development over the last year.
The women’s doubles title went to the make-shift combination of Simran Singhi and Khushi Gupta, who came together for this tournament after the ‘ormer’s regular partner Ritika Thaker was ruled out due to an injury.
Khushi and Simran defeated Telangana’s Vennala K and Shriyanshi Valishetty 21-16, 21-13 to clinch their first senior national title.
In the men’s doubles final, Kerala’s Ravikrishna PS and Sankarprasad Udayakumar made it to their second consecutive final after having to qualify for the main draw. But just like in Chennai, they failed to cross the final hurdle as the experienced combination of Krishna Prasad Gagara and Vishnuvardhan Goud P got the better of them 21-9, 21-12 in the last match of the day.
2012 Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal was present at the prize distribution as the champions received the overall prize money of 10 lac and the curtains were drawn in Hyderabad.
Results:
Men’s Singles: 8-Mithun M bt Aditya Josh’ 21-15, 21-4
Men’s Doubles: 3-Krishna Prasad G/Vishnuvardhan Goud P bt Ravikrishna PS/Sankarprasad Udayakumar’21-9, 21-12
Women’s singles: 2-Malvika Bansod bt 1-Aakarshi Kashya’ 21-15, 21-9
Women’s Doubles: 5-Khushi Gupta/Simran Singhi bt Vennala K/Shriyanshi Valishetty 21-16, 21-13
Mixed Doubles: Rohan Kapoor/Sanjana Santosh bt Dhruv Rawat/Shikha Gautam 21-14, 21-13.
