Former junior world primary Anupama Upadhyaya and Mithun Manjunath notched up contrasting wins to safe the women’s and men’s singles titles in the 84th senior nationwide badminton championship in Pune on February 28.
Anupama, 18, dished out a gritty efficiency to stun Aakarshi Kashyap 20-22 21-17 24-22 in an hour and 18 minutes in the women’s singles last on the Balewadi stadium in Pune.
In men’s singles summit conflict, Orléans Masters runners-up Mithun noticed off Priyanshu Rajawat 21-16 21-11 in simply 38 minutes to elevate the coveted trophy.
Top seed and Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly had been crowned the brand new women’s doubles champions, whereas T. Hemanagendra Babu and Kanika Kanwal clinched the blended doubles crown.
The mixture of S. Kushal Raj and S. Prakash Raj wrapped up the proceedings to clinch the men’s doubles title.
The women’s singles last was a topsy-turvy affair because the skilled Aakarshi fought again from 11-15 all the way down to win seven of the following eight factors and pocketed the opening recreation on second recreation level.
The reversal made Anupama decided to go on the offensive as she started with a 3-0 lead in the second, prolonged it to 9-1, and then maintained the benefit to power the decider.
The 18-year-old from Haryana seemed like operating away with the title and prize purse of Rs 3.25 lakh when she opened up a 17-10 lead in the decider. But Aakarshi wasn’t keen to surrender.
The world No. 42 engaged her opponent in lengthy rallies and drew degree at 17-17 to arrange an thrilling end and even earned a match level that Anupama saved with the shuttle tumbling over after hitting the web chord.
Anupama, nonetheless, held her nerves and was aggressive when it mattered. She pounced on the errors of her opponent to register her first ever win over Aakarshi and clinch the most important title of her fledging profession.
In the men’s last, Mithun’s superior defence and recreation technique of not permitting Rajawat to get beneath the shuttle typically meant that the Railways shuttler was all the time in management.
Both Mithun and Rajawat engaged in some tight battles in the preliminary exchanges and the latter managed to seize a 10-9 cushion at one stage however the eventual champion clinched 5 straight factors to take the lead and race away with the sport.
The second recreation changed into a lop-sided affair as soon as Rajawat failed to search out the winners and Mithun started getting extra inventive on the web. Soon it was a one-way visitors because the 24-year-old from Karnataka shut the door on his rival.
Results (all finals)
Women’s singles: Anupama Upadhyaya bt Aakarshi Kashyap 20-22, 21-17, 24-22
Women’s doubles: Gayatri Gopichand/Treesa Jolly bt Kavya Gupta/Deepshikha Singh 21-10, 21-9
Men’s singles: Mithun Manjunath bt Priyanshu Rajawat 21-16, 21-11
Men’s doubles: S Kushal Raj/S Prakash Raj bt Akshan Shetty/Deep Rambiya 8-21, 21-19, 21-8
Mixed doubles: T Hemanagendra Babu/Kanika Kanwal bt Siddarth Elango/Khushi Gupta 21-17, 21-16.
