All India Senior Ranking: Anura Prabhudesai and Mithun Manjunath emerge winners

Rising star Anura Prabhudesai justified her top seeding as she won the women’s singles title at the All India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament 2018 held at the Parade Ground in Dehradun on Sunday. The 19-year-old needed 33 minutes to dismiss the 13th seeded Kanika Kanwal 21-10, 21-17 in the summit clash.

Prabhudesai dropped only one game en route to the title. She showed exceptional resilience in the quarter-finals where she faced stiff resistance from last week’s All India Senior Ranking Tournament winner Rituparna Das.

The Goa girl staved off a big challenge from the former national champion to pull off a 21-16, 15-21, 24-22 win.

Prabhudesai has been touted as one of the emerging Indian talents for quite some time. She reached the final of the Mauritius International last year where she went down to Shikha Gautam in three games. At the Senior National Badminton Championships in November, the teenager made it to the semi-finals before losing to eventual champion Saina Nehwal.

Mithun Manjunath continues winning streak

In men’s singles, ninth seeded Mithun Manjunath extended his winning streak to 12 matches. A week after winning the All India Senior Ranking Tournament at Bengaluru, the 19-year-old triumphed at the Dehradun event too, where he upset the fourth seeded Rohit Yadav 21-12, 21-11 in the final.

While Mithun did not concede a game at the Bengaluru tournament, he did not have it easy last week. He was stretched to three games in three matches.

In the third round, qualifier Maisnam Meiraba won the opening game before Manjunath came storming back for a 14-21, 21-16, 21-14 win. In the quarter-finals, he once again had to battle hard to notch up a 19-21, 21-17, 21-6 victory over Rajat Rathore.

Mithun’s sternest test came in the semi-finals from the fifth seeded Bodhit Joshi. He held his nerves to eke out a narrow 21-18, 13-21, 22-20 win.

In men’s doubles, top seeds Arun George and Sanyam Shukla got a walkover in the final from the fifth seeds Sunjith S and Shivam Sharma. In women’s doubles, fifth seeds Aparna Balan and Sruthi KP beat the fourth seeds Kuhoo Garg and Ningshi Block Hazarika 21-18, 21-15.

The fourth seeded mixed doubles pair of Gouse Shaik and Kuhoo Garg won when second seeds Shivam Sharma and Poorvisha S Ram retired while trailing 9-12 in the first game.