National Badminton Championships 2023: Anupama Upadhyaya, Mithun Manjunath win singles titles
Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy lost in the early rounds of the men’s singles event. Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly won the women’s doubles title. Know all winners.
Badminton
Teenager Anupama Upadhyaya and Mithun Manjunath won the women’s and men’s singles titles, respectively, at the National Badminton Championships 2023 in Pune on Tuesday.
Anupama Upadhyaya, a former junior world No.1 in BWF rankings, got the better of Aakarshi Kashyap 20-22, 21-17, 24-22 in an hour and 18 minutes in a topsy-turvy final held at Balewadi Stadium.
Aakarshi Kashyap fought back from 11-15 in the opening game to take a 1-0 lead in the final. The 18-year-old Anupama Upadhyaya, however, went on the offensive in the second game as she took a 9-1 lead and then maintained the advantage to force the decider.
Anupama Upadhyaya looked like running away with the title with a 17-10 lead in the decider. Her opponent Aakarshi, with seven straight points, mounted a comeback to level at 17-17 and set up an exciting finish.
Anupama Upadhyaya, though, held her nerves and registered her maiden win over her senior opponent for her first national senior badminton title.
In the men’s singles final, an in-form Mithun Manjunath, who defeated world championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth in the semi-finals, dominated Priyanshu Rajawat for a 21-16, 21-11 victory in 38 minutes.
Mithun Manjunath’s strategy of not allowing Priyanshu Rajawat to get under the shuttle produced good dividends for the eventual champion in the first game.
The second game turned into a lop-sided affair once Rajawat failed to find the winners and Manjunath began getting more creative at the net.
In earlier rounds, top seed HS Prannoy, ninth in the badminton rankings in the men’s singles, was stunned by Kiran George in the second round. Kiran George, however, suffered a 21-14, 21-15 against Priyanshu Rajawat to crash out in the quarter-finals.
In the women’s doubles, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly became champions with a 21-10, 21-9 win over Kavya Gupta and Deepshikha Singh.
S Kushal Raj and S Prakash Raj beat Akshan Shetty and Deep Rambiya 8-21, 21-19, 21-8 to clinch the men’s doubles title. In the mixed doubles final, Hemanagendra Babu and Kanika Kanwal beat Siddarth Elango and Khushi Gupta 21-17, 21-16.
Lakshya Sen, a Commonwealth Games 2022 men’s singles champion and India’s Olympic medallists PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal did not compete at the national badminton championships.
National Badminton Championships 2023 winners
Women’s singles: Anupama Upadhyaya beat Aakarshi Kashyap 20-22, 21-17, 24-22
Women’s doubles: Gayatri Gopichand/Treesa Jolly beat Kavya Gupta/Deepshikha Singh 21-10, 21-9
Men’s singles: Mithun Manjunath beat Priyanshu Rajawat 21-16, 21-11
Men’s doubles: S Kushal Raj/S Prakash Raj beat Akshan Shetty/Deep Rambiya 8-21, 21-19, 21-8
Mixed doubles: T Hemanagendra Babu/Kanika Kanwal beat Siddarth Elango/Khushi Gupta 21-17, 21-16