15-year-old Lakshya Sen continued his rampage through the draw at the 81st Senior National Badminton Championships as he entered the men’s singles final at the Patili Putra Sports Complex in Patna on Monday. The 14th seed put up a brilliant performance to oust the fourth seed and Syed Modi International semi-finalist Harsheel Dani, 21-12, 21-13 in 28 minutes to advance to the summit clash.
Sen, who ascended to the junior World No. 1 ranking last week, has been the giant-killer at this tournament and has accounted for three seeds which include the top seed HS Prannoy in the fourth round.
The talented teen will meet former national champion Sourabh Verma in the title showdown on Tuesday. The third seed and 2011 winner got the better of second seed and defending champion Sameer Verma, 21-16, 21-16.
It helped him avenge last year’s final defeat to his brother. Sourabh’s win also ended a nine-match winning streak for the 22-year-old Sameer, who won the Syed Modi International title last month.
In women’s singles, the second-seeded Rituparna Das reached the final with a 21-11, 21-10 win over the 14th seed Arundhati Pantawane in 21 minutes. She will take on the ninth seed Reshma Karthik, who beat the 15-year-old Aakarshi Kashyap, 21-10, 21-12.
Double delight for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy
There was double delight for another uber-talented teenage shuttler. 16-year-old Satwiksairaj Rankireddy made it to both the men’s doubles as well as the mixed doubles finals.
In mixed doubles, the top-seeded Rankireddy and K Maneesha notched up a comfortable 21-18, 21-13 victory over the seventh seeds Dhruv Kapila and Kuhoo Garg. They will meet the second seeds Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan, who got a walkover against fourth seeds Aparna Balan and Akshay Dewalkar.
In men’s doubles, the third-seeded combine of Rankirerddy and Chirag Shetty pocketed a close first game and then ran through the second game for a 21-16, 21-7 win over Bennet Antony and Arjun Kumar Reddy M.
They will face the unseeded pair of Nanda Gopal K and Sanyam Shukla, who beat the wildcard pair of Dhruv Kapila and Krishna Prasad G, 21-10, 21-12.
The women’s doubles final will see the third seeds Prajakta Sawant and Aparna Balan vying for the title with Shikha Gautam and Sanyogita Ghorpade. Sawant and Balan beat Mahima Agarwal and Maneesha K, 21-13, 21-11 while Gautam and Ghorpade toppled the second seeds Sruthi KP and Haritha MH, 21-14, 21-16.
