Sub Junior nationals: Simran, Kanika, Gulshan and Maisnam crowned champions

Mumbai girl Simran Singhi with
the sub junior national u-13 trophy

The 27th sub junior national badminton championship in Cuttack, Orissa turned out to be a nightmare for higher rated players as most finals on Saturday proved that seeding were just incidental in the final analysis.

Qualifier Simran Singhi of Maharashtra led the charge of the underdogs as she upset sixth seed and statemate Ritika Thaker 21-10, 21-12 in the u-13 girls singles final to win her maiden national crown.

Simran, who trains at the Uday Pawar Badminton Academy, did not drop a single game through the main draw and was clearly the better player on the final day.

The boy’s u-13 and u-15 finals also saw upset victories as Maisnam Meiraba of Manipur and Karthikey Gulshan Kumar of Delhi were crowned championship in the two categories respectively.

Maisnam, seeded fifth, came from behind to beat top seed Akash Yadav 14-21, 21-12, 24-22, while Karthikey defeated top seed Arintap Dasgupta 22-20, 17-21, 21-8.

Delhi’s Kanika Kanwal, however, ensured that the girl’s u-15 final went according to the seeding list as she got the better of Ashmita Chaliha 21-15, 10-21, 21-10 in the final.

Results

U-13

Girls Singles: Simran Singh bt 6-Ritika Thaker 21-10, 21-12

Girls doubles: Richa Muktibodh/Drithi Yatheesh bt 2-M Nivetha/S Winona 22-20, 21-12

Boys singles: 5-Maisnam Meiraba bt 1-Akash Yadav 14-21, 21-12, 24-22

Boys doubles: 1-Tukum Laa/Yash Raikwar bt Maisnam Meiraba/Akash Thakur 14-21, 21-12, 21-15

U-15

Girls singles: 1-Kanika Kanwal bt Ashmita Chaliha 21-15, 10-21, 21-10

Girls doubles: K Ashwini Bhat/U K MIthula bt 2-Cherish D’Souza/Kalpita Sawant 21-14, 16-21, 21-16

Boys singles: 2-Karthikey Gulshan Kumar bt 1-Arintap Dasgupta 22-20, 17-21, 21-8

Boys doubles: 2-D Sanjai Srivatsa/S Sribalaji bt 1-G Krishna Prasad/R Satwik Sai Raj 21-14, 21-10

China Open: Arundhati upsets Hirose; Kashyap, Saina advance

Arundhati Pantawane is undoubtedly enjoying a purple patch in her badminton career and the Nagpur girl made the most of it by upsetting world number 14 Eriko Hirose of Japan in straight games to reach the second round of the China Open Super Series Premier in Shanghai on Wednesday.

The ONGC employee, who had jumped to world number 47 in world rankings, needed just 29 minutes to dispose of the experienced Hirose 21-14, 21-18 to set up a second round clash with third seed and former world champion Yihan Wang of China.

Also joining Arundhati in the next round was sixth seed Saina Nehwal and top ranked Indian men’s shuttler P Kashyap.

Saina, who is looking for her maiden title in 2013, survived some anxious moments in the second game before getting the better of Japan’s Nozomi Okhura 21-14, 21-19 in 40 minutes and will now face another Chinese prospect Sun Yu.

While the women’s singles players registered a cent percent win record, the men’s singles stars had a mixed day.

London Olympics quarterfinalist P Kashyap extended his domination on world number 8 Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand when he upset the veteran 22-20, 21-15.

Kashyap, who now enjoys a 4-1 head-to-head advantage over Ponsana, had to save two game points in the first game. But it was his superiority at the net proved to be the defining factor in the outcome of the match. He will now face Japan’s Kento Momota in the second round.

Qualifier Anand Pawar’s challenge in the tournament, however, came to an end when he went down 18-21, 21-10, 21-11 against Japan’s Takuma Ueda.

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