Sourabh Verma added a second National title to his resume when he ended the brilliant run of junior World No. 1 Lakshya Sen in the men’s singles final of the 81st Senior National Badminton Championships at the Patili Putra Sports Complex in Patna on Tuesday. The World No. 41, who had triumphed earlier in 2011, put up a strong performance to beat the 14th seeded Lakshya Sen, 21-13, 21-12.
The women’s singles title was won by the 20-year-old Rituparna Das. The second seed, who is the current India No. 3 after PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, prevailed over the ninth seed Reshma Karthik, 21-12, 21-14 in 28 minutes.
16-year-old Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, meanwhile, had double delight as he captured both the men’s doubles as well as the mixed doubles titles. Rankireddy, who was seeded third alongside Chirag Shetty in men’s doubles, eked out a tough 21-17, 16-21, 21-14 win over the unseeded combine of Nanda Gopal K and Sanyam Shukla.
In mixed doubles, the top seeded pair of Rankireddy and K Maneesha breezed past the second seeds Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan, 21-14, 21-18 to the crown.
The women’s doubles title went to the third seeds Aparna Balan and Prajakta Sawant, who notched up a comfortable 21-9, 21-11 victory over the unseeded pair of Shikha Gautam and Sanyogita Ghorpade.
For the highly experienced Balan, this was her third women’s doubles crown and ninth senior national title overall.
Lakshya Sen had accounted for three seeds
Lakshya Sen had been a sensation all week at this tournament. The 15-year-old had accounted for three seeds en route to the final, one of which was the top seed HS Prannoy.
Even in the final, he showed some spirited resistance against Sourabh and came back from 4-7 down to take a slender lead of 10-9 in the first game. He fought till 13-17 after which the older Verma brother simply accelerated to grab the opener, 21-13.
However, the teenager felt the effects of his exploits in the second game and could not keep up with Verma anymore. The latter raced through the game to build a 16-8 lead. Even though Sen won four points towards the very end of the match, it was not enough to disrupt the rhythm of Sourabh, who pocketed the win in 33 minutes.
