Date:09/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/09/stories/2006090905601800.htm

Sport - Badminton

Srujan takes title

Principal Correspondent

THE CHAMPIONS: Srujan Nandaluri and Neha Pandit with their trophies. — Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

BANGALORE: Second-seeded Srujan Nandaluri of Andhra Pradesh stopped qualifier Aditya Elango to pocket the boys' under-19 title in the Union Bank all-India junior ranking badminton tournament at the KBA courts here on Friday.

Srujan who won 21-19, 21-12 in 40 minutes, extricated sweet revenge for his brother Arun Nandaluri's defeat at the hands of Aditya in the semifinals on Thursday.

Srujan, who pocketed Rs.15,000, capitalised on some loose play by Aditya and finished the rallies with some steep smashes. Aditya, with a streak of upsets to his credit, just could not get his game going and committed too many unforced errors to virtually gift the match to his shorter and sharper opponent.

Neha triumphs

Neha Pandit of Maharahstra, the girls under-19 top seed, however, encountered stiff resistance from her Statemate Arundati Pantawane before winning 21-19, 12-21, 21-19.

There were upsets galore in the under-10 boys and girls singles with seeded players Ruthvika Shivani and Gangadhar Rao crashing to unseeded Sudha Kalyani and Yuva Prithviraj respectively.

The results:

Boys (under-19): Singles: Srujan Nandaluri (AP) bt Aditya Elango (TN) 21-19, 21-12.

Doubles: Guru Sai Dutt/ K. Tarun (AP) bt Akshay Dewalkar/ Jishnu Sanyal (AI) 21-18, 21-16.

Under-16: Singles: Abhimanyu Singh (MP) bt Aditya Prakash (Kar) 21-18, 21-18. Doubles: Parin Chopda (Mah)/ Raj Kumar (Pnb) bt Pratik Patel (Guj)/ Aditya Prakash (Kar) 21-14, 21-17.

Under-13: Singles: Praful Joshi (MP) bt Sameer Varma (MP) 21-14, 21-12.

Doubles: Sameer Varma/ Arpit Verma (MP) bt Saharsh/ N.V.S. Vijeth (AP) 24-22, 21-18.

Under-10: Singles: Yuva Prithviraj (AP) bt Gangadhar Rao (AP) 21-17, 21-17.

Doubles: H. Nagendra Babu/ Yuva Prithviraj (AP) bt Yash Pundalik/ Anuj Kanetkar (Mah) 21-11, 16-21, 21-11.

Girls (under-19): Singles: Pandit (Mah) bt Arundati Pantawane (Mah) 21-19, 12-21, 21-19. Doubles: Ashwini Ponnappa/ Nitya Sosale (Kar) bt G.M. Nischitha/ Ruth Misha (Kar) 17-21, 21-18, 22-20.

Under-16: Singles: Sikky Reddy (AP) bt P.C. Thulasi (Ker) 22-20, 16-21, 22-20.

Doubles: Sikky Reddy (AP)/ P.C. Thulasi (Ker) bt Vaishali Baria (Guj)/ Prajakta Sawant (Mah) 21-17, 12-21, 21-13.

Under-13: Singles: M. Chandana (AP) bt Daya Elsa Jacob (Ker) 21-9, 21-12.

Doubles: Daya Elsa Jacob (Ker)/ M. Chandana (AP) bt Leela Lakshmi/ P.V. Sindhu (AP) 21-14, 21-18.

Under-10: Singles: Sudha Kalyani (AP) bt Ruthvika Shivani (AP) 21-18, 21-18.

Doubles: K. Sri Nandini/ Ruthvika Shivani (AP) bt Sudha Kalyani/ Harika (AP) 22-24, 21-11, 21-11.