Date:11/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/11/stories/2008091156632000.htm

Sport - Badminton

Gauri wins title on a day of upsets

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Top seed Gauri Asija beat back a strong challenge from second seed Kanika Kanwal 16-21, 21-15, 21-19 to win the girls’ under-13 title in the J. D. Tytler memorial badminton tournament at the Punjabi Bagh Club here.

In the boys’ under-13 semifinals, Rohan Kapoor and Ankit Chikara knocked out top seed Gaurav Deswal and second seed Rishab Sahdev, respectively.

In the girls’ under-16 quarterfinals, Ananya Nagar eliminated third seed Shambhavi Bajaj and Nisha Nain battled hard to upstage fourth seed Yamini Kulesh. In another surprise, Trinayan Lakhar beat fourth seed Jayank Ahuja in straight games to enter the boys’ under-16 semifinals.

The results: Boys U-13 (semifinals): Rohan Kapoor bt Gaurav Deswal 21-18, 21-11; Ankit Chikara bt Rishab Sahdev 17-21, 21-16, 21-15.

U-16 (quarterfinals): Bhaskar Chakravarty bt Sunny Kumar 21-7, 21-15; Abhilash Sharma bt Yash Nain 21-16, 21-15; Harshvardhan Bisht bt Ankit Chikara 21-11, 21-5; Trinayan Lakhar bt Jayank Ahuja 21-18, 21-17.

Girls U-13 (final): Gauri Asija bt Kanika Kanwal 16-21, 21-15, 21-19.

U-16 (quarterfinals): Shreya Aggarwal bt Gauri Asija 21-7, 21-15; Nisha Nain bt Yamini Kulesh 23-21, 20-22, 21-15; Ananya Nagar bt Shambhavi Bajaj 21-11, 21-12; Grishma Anand bt Rashmeet Kaur 21-10, 21-15.

U-19 (pre-quarterfinals): Nidhi Tiwari bt Anchal 21-17, 18-21, 21-9; Ananya Nagar bt Seema 21-7, 21-5; Shradha Srivastava bt Chavi Gulati 21-8, 21-8; Rashmeet Kaur bt Nisha Nain 21-19, 21-17; Saloni Chopra bt Yamini Sharma 14-21, 21-16, 21-16; Shreya Aggarwal bt Rishika Bhutani 21-10, 21-5; Grishma Anand bt Radhika Babbar 27-25, 21-14; Priyanka Arya bt Neha Parmar 21-15, 21-9.