CHANDIGARH, Feb 17: Last year's winners Delhi carved out a 3-2 win over Uttar Pradesh to win the men's team championship on the penultimate day of the North Zone Audit and Account General badminton tournament being played at Sector 42 Indoor Badminton Hall.In a nail biting contest, UP's Deepak Saxena got the better of Sunil Yadav 15-13, 15-4, to give his team 1-0 lead. However, the lead was shortlived as Dinesh Kapoor lost to Vijay 5-15, 7-15.In the doubles, the duo of Deepak and Salil played their heart out to give 2-1 lead to UP. With their attacking game they outclassed the pair of Sunil Yadav and Opinderpal 11-15, 15-5, 15-4.UP's Salil was no match for Delhi's Arul Sundram, who scored a 15-3, 15-2 win in the reverse singles to level the score 2-2.In the decider, shuttlers from UP wilted under pressure and lost their grip on the contest. On the other hand the duo of Arul and Vijay were all over the court, and did not allow their rivals Manoj and Harish Tewari to settle down and won the match 15-8, 15-6, plus the title.In the men's singles first round, both Vijay Sharma and Sunil Yadav of Delhi scored victories over their opponents to move into the next round. Vijay beat Lav Kumar (Punjab) 15-1, 15-1 while Sunil defeated Umesh (Punjab) 15-3, 15-10.TK Dogra (Haryana) and V Bhaskar (Shimla) entered the final of veteran singles.TK Dogra beat Pala Ram (Punjab) 15-4, 15-6, in the first semifinal while V Bhaskar outplayed Shiv Kumar (Punjab) 15-10, 12-15, 15-10, in the second semifinal. Saroj Chauhan of Haryana also made it to the final of the women singles by defeating Hardeep Sandhu of Shimla 11-1, 8-11, 11-3.In the second semifinal, Nimisha Kumari of UP made a short work of Varsha Verma 11-8, 11-9, to lock horns with Saroj in the final tomorrow.ResultsMenSingles (first round): Vijay (Delhi) bt Lav Kumar (Punjab) 15-1, 15-1; Jaswant Rail (Punjab) bt Raman (Haryana) 15-13, 15-4; Manoj (Shimla) bt Vinod Kaushik (Haryana) 15-2, 15-4; Manoj Goel (UP) bt Raj Pal (Jammu and Kashmir) 15-5, 15-8; Sunil Yadav (Delhi) bt Umesh (Punjab) 15-3, 15-10; Deepak (Shimla) walk over AP Chopy (Haryana); Sudhir Kumar (Punjab) bt Sarup Singh (Haryana) 15-12, 12-15, 15-8; Deepak Saxena (UP) walk over Arvind Dogra (Jammu and Kashmir).Veteran: Singles: V Bhaskar (Shimla) bt VP Sharma (Haryana) 15-6, 15-9. Semifinal: TK Dogra (Haryana) bt Pala Ram (Punjab) 15-4, 15-6; V Bhaskar (Shimla) bt Shiv Kumar Gupta (Punjab) 15-10, 12-15, 15-10.WomenSingles: Semifinal: Saroj Chauhan (Haryana) bt Hardeep Sandhu (Shimla) 11-1, 8-11, 11-3; Nimisha Kumari (UP) bt Varsha Verma (Haryana) 11-8, 11-9.
