Iceland International 2018: Indian shuttlers finish on a high with two titles

Away from the glitz and glamour of the Indonesia Masters, young Indian shuttlers put up quite a show at the $10,000 Iceland International 2018 in Reykjavik, Iceland on Sunday by winning two titles. Saili Rane grabbed the women’s singles title while the pair of Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg triumphed in the mixed doubles section.

In an all-Indian women’s singles final, fifth seeded Rane eked out a tight opener from the fourth seed Vanishnavi Reddy Jakka and then cruised through the second game to register a 22-20, 21-12 win in 46 minutes. This is the fourth international title of the 101st ranked Rane’s career.

It comes two months after she triumphed at the Norwegian International in November.

Kapoor and Garg showed tremendous resilience to come back from a game down to edge the top seeds Kristoffer Knudsen and Isabella Nielsen 16-21, 21-19, 21-18 in a 55-minute battle. This is the first title for the 20-year-old Kapoor and the 19-year-old Garg since winning the Hellas Open in Greece four months ago.

19-year-old Bodhit Joshi too made it to the men’s singles final. But he did not have the same good fortunes and went down 14-21, 17-21 to the second seed Sam Parsons of England.

Parsons had earlier halted the run of the rising Indian star, Siddharth Pratap Singh, who won the Swedish Open last week. The Englishman got the better of him 21-18, 21-14 in the semi-finals, ending his eight-match winning streak.

In the women’s singles section, both Rane and Jakka had been giant-killers and accounted for the tournament’s top two seeds. The fast-rising Jakka, who is in the top 90 at the tender age of 15, upset the top seed Kate Foo Kune 21-17, 21-18 in the semi-finals.

Rane too had an impressive run to the summit clash and stunned the second seed Clara Azurmendi 16-21, 21-14, 21-14 in the quarter-finals.