Top seeds bite the dust

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 15

Haryana’s Ravi upset top seed Rohan Gurbani of Air India in a nail-biting final, which lasted over an hour, to claim the boys’ U-19 singles title on the concluding day of the Sunrise Yonex All India Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament at the Sector 38 Sports Complex here today.

Ravi made his intentions clear with a 21-17 win in the opening game, and though Gurbani pocketed the second game 21-19 to draw level, the Haryana shuttler dominated the decider 21-8 to race to the title.

In another upset, third seed Mansi Singh of Uttar Pradesh packed off top seed Tasnim Mir of Gujarat in just 30 minutes to clinch the girls’ singles U-19 title. Mansi won the final 21-17 21-19.

In the doubles contest, the six seeded pair of RPS and Sai Pullela rallied from a game down to beat S Udayakumar and GB 18-21 21-18 21-16 to win the title boys’ U-19 title.

Second seeds Aditi Bhatt and Tanya Hemanth drubbed sixth seeded pair of Shruti Mishra and Shailja Shukla 21-11 21-9 in the girls’ U-19 doubles final.

In the mixed doubles contest, top seeds Edwin Joy and Shruti Mishra lived up to their reputation as they defeated AV Suresh and S Gurazada 21-18 21-14 to win the title.