Sameer Verma, Tanvi Lad bag singles titles in Bahrain

Former junior national champion and world junior bronze medallist Sameer Verma put behind six months of frustration and injury trouble to land his second international title in two weeks when he came back from a game down to upset sixth seed Shubhankar Dey and lift the Bahrain International Challenge title in Manama on Saturday night.

The 20-year-old, who missed most of the season due to injury and made a comeback in the Indonesia Open in September, had bagged the International series crown last week at the same venue and then added the Challenge crown on Saturday with a 19-21, 21-14, 21-12 victory over his more seasoned opponent.

The Challenge level is one step above the Series in the Badminton World Federation’s hierarchy.

While Verma remained unbeaten in Baharain, Saili Rane’s bid to grab her second international title was shattered by a rampaging Tanvi Lad in the women’s singles final.

The battle between two Mumbai born shuttlers turned out to be an one-sided affair with top seed Tanvi registering a 21-12, 21-18 victory over her compatriot in just 47 minutes.

Tanvi, who had suffered a quarterfinal reversal in the Internation Series last week, did not drop a single game this week.

“I guess I had not fully recovered after playing the European circuit and hence my performance was not up to the mark last week. I took good rest and prepared well for this week and it showed in the results,” said Tanvi after bagging her maiden international title.

In the doubles section, Sanave Thomas bagged a double crown with the mixed and men’s doubles title.

Results (final)

Mens singles: Sameer Verma bt 6-Shubhankar Dey 19-21, 21-14, 21-12

Men’s doubles: 3-Sanave Thomas/Rupesh Kumar bt V Diju/K Nandagopal walkover

Women’s singles: 1-Tanvi Lad bt 2-Saili Rane 21-12, 21-18

Women’s doubles: 2-Pradnya Gadre/N Sikki Reddy bt Aparna Balan/Sanyogita Ghorpade 21-13, 19-21, 21-5

Mixed doubles: Sanave Thomas/Prajakta Sawant bt 4-V Diju/N Sikki Reddy 19-21, 21-14, 23-23 retired

Indians sweep all five titles in Bahrain

Indian shuttlers enjoyed a fruitful outing in the Bahrain International Series 2013 in Manama as they swept all the five titles on offer on Sunday night.
Thane's Saili Rane and Madhya Pradesh's Sameer Verma claimed the women's and men's singles crowns respectively to ensure that the Indian contingent would not miss out on any title triumphs since all the three doubles finals were all-Indian affairs.
Saili, who now trains with Tom's Badminton Academy in Bangalore, fought back from a game down to beat third seed Sannatasah Saniru of Malaysia 14-21, 21-19, 21-17.
In the men's singles final, unseeded Sameer Verma kept his nerves to upset 8th seed Dinuka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka 21-11, 18-21, 21-13 to clinch his maiden senior international title.

Results (finals):
Women singles: 2-Saili Rane bt 3-Sannatasah Saniru (Mas) 14-21, 21-19, 21-17
Doubles: Prajakta Sawant/Aarti Sarah Sunil bt Aparna Balan/Sanyogita Ghorpade 18-21, 21-18,  21-16
Men singles: Sameer Verma bt 8-Dinuka Karunaratne (Sri) 21-11, 18-21, 21-13
Doubles: V Diju/K Nandagopal bt 3-Rupesh Kumar/Sanave Thomas 21-17, 12-21, 21-19
Mixed doubles: 1-Aparna Balan/Arun Vishnu bt V Diju/N Sikki Reddy 21-14, 25-23

Tanvi Lad in Swiss International final

Former junior national champion Tanvi Lad reached her maiden international final when she got the better of seventh seed Yuka Kusunose of Japan 16-21, 21-14, 21-19 in the women’s singles semifinal in the Swiss International Challenge badminton tournament in Yverdon-Ies-Bains, Switzerland.

Sixth seed Tanvi stuck to her style of grinding down the opponent with long rallies and the game plan worked perfectly for the Mumbai girl who won the semifinal in just over an hour and set up a summit clash against Beiwen Zhang of USA.

While Tanvi made it to her maiden final, the promising run of India’s doubles pairs came to an end at the semifinal stage with the mixed doubles combination of Pranaav Jerry Chopra/K Maneesha and men’s doubles pair of Chopra/Akshay Dewalkar losing their hard fought encounters.

Chopra and Dewalkar, who had bagged the bronze medal in the Bulgarian International last week, tried their best to join Tanvi in the final but went down 21-18, 21-16 against the French combination of Lucas Korvee and Brice Leverdez.

Earlier, the mixed doubles pair of Maneesha and Chopra fought valiantly against top seeds Vitalij Durkin and Nina Vislova of Russia but their efforts were not enough as they went down 21-15, 21-11.

Asian Youth Championship: Varma, Arjun/Shetty win gold

Indian contingent with Siril Varma, M R Arjun and Chirag Shetty

Indian shuttlers crowned the country’s best ever performance in the Asian Youth (u-15 & u-17) badminton championship with two gold medals in the 2013 edition of the championship in Kudus, Indonesia, on Sunday.

Fourteen-year-old Siril Varma began the Indian march with a 21-11, 21-17 victory over local favourite Putra Gatja in the boys u-15 singles final before the top seeded boy’s u-17 doubles combination of MR Arjun and Chirag Shetty defeated Thai combination of Mak Narongrit and Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-16, 21-15 to clinch the title.

The two titles took India’s medals tally to two gold and two bronze in the championship. Bangalore’s Daniel Farid (boys u-17 singles) and Krishna Prasad/Shreya Bose (u-15 mixed doubles) had to settle for a bronze medal after losing their respective semifinals on Saturday.

Last year, India had managed to win two bronze medals in China in boy’s u-15 singles and doubles events.

The last time India had won a gold in this competition was when Prajakta Sawant and Raj Kumar won the mixed doubles gold in the 2007 Asian meet in Hanoi, Vietnam. In 2007, the tournament was called the Asian Sub Junior championship with only the U-16 category to compete.

World championship bronze medallist P V Sindhu had bagged the u-19 girls singles title in the Asian Junior championship last year.

Results:

U-15 boys singles: Siril Varma bt Putra Gatja (Ina) 21-11, 21-17

U-17 boys doubles: 1-M R Arjun/Chirag Shetty bt Kantaphon Wangcharoen/Mak Narongrit (Tha) 21-16, 21-15

Asian Youth Championship: Varma, Arjun/Shetty stay in title hunt

Unseeded Siril Varma and the doubles combination of M R Arjun and Chirag Shetty kept alive India’s hope of bringing home the gold medal when they ensured a final berth in their respective events of the Asian Youth (U-15 & U-17) badminton championship in Kudus, Indonesia, on Saturday.

Siril Varma, who trains at the Gopichand Badminton Academy, had to save two game points in the second game before clinching his u-boys 15 singles semifinal encounter against Thaliand’s Nipornam Pacharapol 21-10, 21-18 in just 38 minutes.

He will now take on local favourite Putra Gatja in the final.

In the boy’s u-17 doubles, top seeds Arjun and Shetty defeated Thai combination of Kantawat Leelavechabut Krit Tantianankul 22-20, 21-19 in a hard fought encounter to reach the summit clash. The Indian combination, which has not lost a singles game in the tournament so far, will now face another Thai challenge in the form of Mak Narongrit and Kantaphon Wangcharoen.

Meanwhile, two other Indian challengers – Daniel Farid (boys u-17 singles) and Krishna Prasad/Shreya Bose (u-15 mixed doubles) had to settle for a bronze medal after losing their respective semifinals.

Results (semifinals)

U-15

Boys singles: Siril Varma bt Nipornam Pacharapol (Tha) 21-10, 22-20

Mixed Doubles: Krishna Prasad/Shreya Bose lost to Nipornram Pacharapol/Chaiwan Pattarasuda (Tha) 21-19, 17-21, 21-19

U-17

Boys doubles: 1-M R Arjun/Chirag Shetty bt Kantawat Leelavechabut/Krit Tantianankul (Tha) 22-20, 21-19

Boys Singles: Daniel Farid lost to 3-Abdul Kholik (Ina) 21-8, 21-11

Ruthvika, Daniel, Dasgupta and Varma in Asian Youth meet quarters

Four Indian singles players stayed on course for a podium finish in the Asian Youth (U-15 & U-17) Badminton Championship currently underway at Kudus, Indonesia, after reaching the quarterfinal round in their respective age category.

Ruthvika Shivani (girls u-17), Daniel Farid (boys u-17), Arintap Dasgupta and Siril Varma (boys u-15) made it to the last eight stage on Thursday.

In the girl’s under-17 event, top seed Ruthvika Shivani hammered Yeung Nga Ting of Hong Kong 21-14, 21-14 and will take on 5^th seed Supanida Katethong of Thailand.

While the higher ranked Indian players were made to bite the dust, Daniel Farid got the better of local hope and eighth seed Zulkifli Muhammad 21-12, 10-21, 21-12.

Results (third round)

Girls u-17

Ruthvika Shivani bt Yeung Nga Ting of Hong Kong 21-14, 21-14

Boys u-17

Daniel Farid bt 8-Zulkifli Muhammad (Ina) 21-12, 10-21, 21-12

Boys u-15

Arintap Dasgupta bt Nugroho Bagas Kristianto (Ina) 13-21, 21-17, 21-12; Siril Varma bt Utama Aliev Cahya 18-21, 21-8, 21-10

Ruthvika Shivani gets top billing in Asian Youth championship

Junior national champion Ruthvika Shivani have been given top billing in the girls u-17 singles category of the Flypower Badminton Asia Youth (U-15 and U-17) championship to be held in Kudus, Indonesia, from October 8-13.

The Gopichand Academy trainee is the firm favourite to bring home the u-17 singles especially in the absence of any Chinese challenger in the competition.

In fact, all the four Indian participants in the girls u-17 category have been seeded in the tournament for the first time ever with Shreyanshi Pardeshi seeded third, Gujarat’s Anoushka Parikh sixth and ShuttleCraze Academy, Mumbai’s Karishma Wadkar seventh.

In the boy’s u-17 section, the Indian challenge will be led by fifth seed Chirag Sen with seventh seed Laa Talar, Daniel Farid and Rahul Yadav completing the team.

Indian squad:

U-15

Boys: Siril Verma, Lakshya Sen, Arintap Dasgupta, Gulshan Kartikey, Swastik Sai Raj, Krishna Prasad

Girls: Kanika Kanwal, Ashmita Chaliha, Kalpita Sawant, Akshita Bhandari, Shreya Bose

U-17

Boys: Daniel Farid, Rahul Yadav, Chirag Sen, Laa Talar, MR Arjun, Chirag Shetty, Saurav Sharma, Rohan Kapoor

Girls: Karishma Wadkar, G Ruthvika Shivani, Shriyanshi Pardeshi, Anoushka Parikh, M Archana, JK Malvika, Ashna Roy, Kuhoo Garg

Coaches: K Mohan, Vikas Sharma, O S Rana