Double for Gayatri
The state shuttler won singles and, with Vaishnavi, won the doubles crown at the national subjunior ranking tournament played in Hyderabad
Vaishnavi, India’s U-13 No.1 last year, narrowly missed out on a second title on her under-15 debut, losing the singles final to top seed Aakarshi
Telangana badminton player Pullela Gayatri Gopichand started her year with a bang, winning two titles at the all-India sub-junior ranking badminton tournament, played at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy, Gachibowli in Hyderabad.
Gayatri — the daughter of chief national coach Gopichand — was crowned champion in the under-13 girls singles tournament and then paired up with statemate Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka to win the girls doubles crown in the under-15 category.
Vaishnavi, who ended 2014 as the India No.1 in under-13, made her under-15 debut at this event, and is already ranked No.2. She trains at the Gopichand Academy.
Gayatri, the girls’ top seed in the under-13 event, registered a fighting 21-18, 12-21, 21-9 victory over statemate Samiya Farooqui Imad.
Samiya was another shuttler from Telangana who impressed at the event, winning the under13 girls doubles competition.
In the girls doubles under-15 final, the sixth-seeded pair of Gayatri and Vaishnavi defeated eighth seeds Akshita A. of Andhra Pradesh and Himanshi Rawat of Uttarakhand 21-16, 1921, 21-16.
Vaishnavi, studying in Class VII at the Indus International School in Hyderabad, narrowly missed out on a double at the tournament when she squandered a one-game lead and lost the under-15 singles final to topseeded Aakarshi Kashyap of Chandigarh 15-21, 21-14, 20-22.
Earlier, in the girls singles under-15 semifinals, Vaishnavi battled back from a game down to defeat Malvika Bansod of Maharashtra 15-21, 21-15, 21-13.
She had scripted a fighting victory in the quarterfinals as well. Playing against the fifth seed from Maharashtra, Rithika Thaker, Vaishnavi shrugged off a one-game deficit to win 21-23, 21-19, 21-18.
In the under-13 girls doubles title round, Samiya and her partner, Kavipriya S. of Puducherry — seeded 12th — stunned Uttarakhand’s top seeds Divyanshi Joshi and Sneha Rajwar in straight games 21-18, 21-8.
In the boys’ doubles final, the top-seeded pairing of Chayanit Joshi — from Uttarakhand — and Andhra Pradesh lad Arshad Shaik came back from a game down to beat second seeds Jayant Rana of Haryana and Vikas Yadav of Delhi 21-23, 21-12, 21-18.
It was double delight for Uttar Pradesh player Abhyansh Singh in the under-15 category.
The ninth seed stunned Delhi’s second seed Aakash Yadav in three games 21-14, 17-21, 21-19.
The two opponents then teamed up to take down the eighth-seeded pair from Andhra Pradesh, Varaprasad Kanakala and Tharun M., in straight games 21-12, 21-18.