Back-to-back titles for Bharat Raghav; Unnati Hooda beats Devika Sihag to emerge All India Junior Ranking badminton champion

Back-to-back titles for Bharat Raghav; Unnati Hooda beats Devika Sihag to win All India Jr badminton crown

Modified Jul 26, 2022 19:18 IST

Unnati Hooda upset Devika Sihag to win the U-19 girls singles title at the All India Junior Ranking Badminton tournament. (Pic credit: BAI)

Bharat Raghav made it two in a row to emerge as champion at the Yonex-Sunrise All India Junior Ranking Badminton tournament, which concluded in Goa on Thursday.

The action at the Manohar Parrikar Indoor Stadium on the seventh and final day of the competition was quite intense and witnessed frequent tumblings of seeded players.

While Haryana’s Raghav extended his dream run by winning the U19 boys singles, his statemate Unnati Hooda triumphed in the U19 girls singles.

Second seed Raghav stunned top seed Pranav Rao Gandham 21-18, 21-12 in 42 minutes on his way to grabbing back-to-back titles. Around a couple of weeks ago, the tall and lanky shuttler ousted sixth seed Sanskar Saraswat 13-21, 21-7, 21-17 in the U19 boys singles final in Panchkula, Haryana.

Continuing his ruthless form, Raghav defeated Telangana’s Pranav in straight games. Southpaw Pranav offered stiff resistance in the first game but could not stop a rampaging Bharat as the match progressed.

Raghav, a trainee at Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) in Bengaluru, downed fourth seed Tonmoy Bikash Boruah 21-9, 21-17 in the semi-finals, while Gandham got the better of Manraj Singh 21-16, 21-19 in 52 minutes.

Unnati Hooda hands Devika Sihag second consecutive defeat in a final

Having made a strong comeback, Unnati Hooda clinched the U19 girls singles crown with a hard-fought victory in a thrilling final.

In an all-Haryana summit clash, Unnati shocked fifth seed Devika Sihag 23-21, 14-21, 21-19 in a match that lasted an hour and seven minutes.

15-year-old Unnati, who crashed out quite early in the previous tournament in Panchkula, staged a superb comeback to emerge as champion. The finale was a topsy-turvy affair, with fortunes fluctuating on several occasions.

Unnati, who represented the senior Indian women’s team at the Uber Cup a couple of months ago, won the extended first game 23-21 after surviving game points.

Devika Sihag, a trainee at the PPBA, restored parity by pocketing the second game quite easily at 21-14. In the decider, both Unnati and Devika fought gallantly for each point before the former clinched the title in her favor with a 21-19 win.

Unnati shocked fourth seed Anupama Upadhyaya of Haryana 21-14, 21-14 in the semi-finals on Wednesday. In the second semis, Devika prevailed over seventh seed Rakshitha Sree S. 22-24, 21-13, 21-11 in 63 minutes.

Anupama accounted for Panchkula winner Tara Shah of Maharashtra in the second round.

Devika Sihag and Isharani Baruah clinch girls’ doubles

After suffering a narrow defeat in the singles, Devika Sihag had the last laugh when she won the U19 girls doubles with her partner Isharani Baruah.

Fourth seeds Devika and Isharani shocked top seeds Gnanadha Karthikeyan and Sania Sikkandar 16-21, 21-17, 21-18 in a nail-biting final that lasted more than an hour.

The top seeds in the U19 boys doubles also faced similar results. Unseeded Divyam Arora and Mayank Rana upset top seeds Darshan Pujari and Abhinav Thakur 21-18, 21-17 in 42 minutes.

The U19 mixed doubles title was annexed by Sathwik Reddy K and Vaishnavi Khadkekar. Sathwik and Vaishnavi rallied back to down Vighnesh Thathineni and Sri Sai Sravya Lakkamraju 17-21, 21-16, 21-16 in a marathon encounter that lasted an hour and 16 minutes.

The Goa event was the third and final selection tournament. The top performers of the Bengaluru, Panchkula and Goa tournaments will be called for national selection trials soon.

BAI will select the Indian junior team for various international events, including the BWF World Junior Championships, to be held in October in Santander, Spain.