Shuttle Express

This tournament, as well as the last week’s junior ranking tournament in Chandigarh, will act as a selection ground for world junior championships to be held in Canada later this year. A total of 931 entries were received for the tournament, including 819 entries for the qualifying rounds. While Maisnam Mairaba of Manipur had claimed the boys’ U-19 title in Chandigarh last week, third seed Priyanshu Rajawat emerged as the winner in Panchkula with an 18-21, 21-17, 24-22 win over D Sarath of Andhra Pradesh to win the Smt Krishna Khaitan Memorial Rolling Cup for this year.

The youngster, who belongs to Dhar in Madhya Pradesh, won his second U-19 ranking title of the year after winning the U-19 title in Tiruppur earlier this year. “It was my fourth junior ranking tournament this year and it feels good to win my second title of the year in Panchkula. Sarath was playing well and he did unsettle me in the first game. In the last game, too, he made a strong comeback after being 17-20 down but such a win will boost my confidence a lot,” said Rajawat, who trains at the Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad. Rajawat’s opponent in the final, Sarath won the Aiyappa Trophy for the best player (boys) of the tournament.

For the girls’ doubles pair of Srishti Jupudi of Telangana and Ashwini Bhat of Karnataka, it was only into the third month that they were playing as a pair. Jupudi/Bhat emerged as the winners in the girls’ U-19 doubles final to win the Rachel Goenka Trophy with a 21-16, 21-14 win over Sahithi Bandi and Thanushree R. This was their first U-19 title win and as the pair won the final, they were watched by their mothers. While Jupudi’s mother Madhuri Jupidi is a former national-level badminton player, Bhat’s mother Dr Sudha Bhat left her practice as a doctor to travel with her daughter for tournaments.

“Both of us trained with different partners earlier and started playing together two months ago. We lost in the third round last week but we wanted to win here. The win in semi-finals over fifth seed pair helped our confidence,” said Bhat. As for Hyderabad-based Jupudi, the doubles win has boosted her confidence after playing in the Junior Asian Championships earlier this year. “I had partnered with Preethi in the Asian Junior Championships. Even though we lost in the second round, the experience helped me a lot. Winning the title here with Ashwini is an important step in our doubles career and it will also help our U-19 doubles ranking,” said Jupudi, who idolises 2008 Olympics doubles gold medallist Lee Yong Dae of South Korea.

It was also a day of winning their first title in U-19 category as a pair for the mixed doubles pair of Navneeth Bokka and Sahithi Bandi won the Sasha Goenka Trophy by scoring a 18-21, 22-20, 21-15 win over the pair of Sai Pratheek Krishna Prasad and Ashwini Bhat. Bokka/Bandi had lost in the semi-finals in mixed doubles U-19 event in last year’s 26th Smt Krishna Khaitan Memorial All India Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament and Sunday’s win meant that the duo can qualify for a spot in the Indian team for World Junior Championships.

“I won the doubles titles with Vishnuvardhan Goud in Junior nationals and Khelo India Games. To win the mixed doubles title with Sahithi will boost my confidence,” said Bokka. As for Sahithi, the tournament saw her featuring in two finals as she also reached the girls’ doubles final with Thanushree. “Competing in girls’ doubles and mixed doubles is tiring but it helps us accumulate important ranking points.”

Krishna Prasad G and Dhruv Kapila, winners of Anant Goenka Trophy, at Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex on Sunday. (Express photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

In the boys’ doubles U-19 final, the pair of Dhruv Kapila of Punjab and Krishna Prasad G won the title with a 21-16, 21-15 win over top seed pair of Vishnuvardhan Goud and Sri Krishna Sai Kumar Podile to win the Anant Goenka Trophy. The tournament has seen the likes of 2012 Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal winning the girls’ title in 2005 apart from 2016 Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu winning the girls’ title in 2010. Current world number six Kidambi Srikanth too won the boys’ title in 2009.

“When Saina Nehwal won the title here in 2005, this was the only junior national ranking tournament in the country at that time. Winning here meant a lot for her confidence and soon she won her first international Grand Prix title in the Philippines. Later when Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu won in 2009 and 2010 respectively, it also paved their way into the junior Indian teams. While this year, the tournament acted as one of the selection tournaments for the upcoming Junior Badminton World Championships to be played in Canada later this year. The fact that this is only a U-19 tournament will make it more competitive,” said Sanjiv Sachdeva, former India chief junior coach and now a member of BAI’s junior selection committee and adviser to the association.