SATHISH, TANISHA-DHRUV ODISHA MASTERS CHAMPS
Cuttack, Dec. 17: India’s Sathish Kumar Karunakaran secured his maiden BWF super 100 title after outwitting world junior championship bronze medallist Ayush Shetty in an all Indian men’s singles final at the Odisha Masters here on Sunday. The 22year-old Sathish, who won men’s singles title at India International and had a runner-up finish at Maldives International this season, prevailed 2118, 19-21, 21-14 over Ayush in an exciting final.
Indian pair of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila also stood at the podium after winning the mixed doubles title following a thrilling three-game win over Singapore’s Hee Yong Kai Terry and Tan Wei Han Jessica in a pulsating final.
Tanisha, 20, and 23-yearold Dhruv dished out a gallant fight to rally their way to outwit Hee and Tan 17-21, 21-19, 23-21 in an hour and 14 minutes.
Sathish had come into the final, having beaten Ayush at the Chhattisgarh India International Challenge this season.
However, there was hardly anything to separate the two Indians though Sathish showed better control and won the key moments to move ahead from 13-13 in the opening game.
From 14-18, Ayush tried to fight back but was erratic. Eventually, Sathish pushed one at the forehand corner to take two game points and sealed it with a smash.
Sathish kept the tempo high to eke out a 6-3 lead before staying ahead at 15-13 but Ayush stepped up and grabbed a one game point with a smash and then dominated a flat exchange to take it to the decider.
Ayush fell into a pool of errors as he sprayed into net, smashed out and also made judgement errors to lag 1-7 in the decider. Sathish the took a sixpoint advantage.