In a dramatic turn of events, D Guruprasad edged out an injury-struck Mohit Kamat 16-21, 21-16, 21-19 to win the men’s title in the Narasamma memorial State-ranking badminton tournament at the Malleswaram Association courts on Wednesday.
Guruprasad matched his younger opponent early on and the first game was evenly poised at 11-11. But after winning a point, Kamat suffered back spasms.
But Guruprasad lost his rhythm due to a prolonged injury break and conceded seven straight points to trail 13-19. Kamat wrapped up the opening game 21-16.
Guruprasad had Kamat struggling at the net with clever placements in the second game, which he took 21-16. In the final game, the tiring Kamat, relying more on experience, took a handy 10-5 lead. Guru-prasad read the situation to perfection and ran his opponent ragged. He first reduced the deficit before levelling scores at 18-18. At 19 all, a miscued Kamat serve gave Guruprasad match point and the 27-year-old Canara Bank player celebrated his victory on another Kamat error.
In the girls’ secton, Ankita Ashok prevented a double for Jacqueline Kunnath by beating her 21-18, 21-13 to win the U-19 title. Earlier, Jacqueline coasted to a 21-16, 21-16 victory over Anagha Unni to lift the U-16 title.
Results:
Men:Singles(final): D Guruprasad bt Mohit Kamat 16-21, 21-16, 21-19. Doubles (semis): Vineet Manuel/ Arun Vishnu bt Jagadish Yadav/ Venkatesh Prasad 21-8, 21-16; Abhijith Naimpally/ K D Guruprasad bt B S Phalgun/ Shashank Achar 21-14, 21-13.
U-19 (doubles final): M D Anup Kiran/ Prateek Khurana bt Darshan Kulkarni/ Dhruv Shanbag 21-16, 13-21, 21-13.
U-16 (quarters):  L U Chiraag bt G K Ashwin 24-22, 21-12; Vinay Hari bt Shashank Menon 21-14, 21-8; Ajay Patil bt Sai Praneeth 21-13, 21-11, Rajas Jawalkar bt Suraj R N 21-12, 12-21, 21-16.
Doubles (final): Ajay Patil/ R N Suraj bt G K Ashwin/ Vinay Hari 23-21, 21-15.
U-10 (final): Mithun Manjunath bt Akash V Anvekar 21-13, 21-17.
Women: Singles (semis): Soumya Padhye bt Manvi Rao 21-17, 21-13; Monisha Vinayak bt Sayali Malgave 21-18, 21-10.
Doubles (quarters): Kaveri/ Sharada bt Padivala/ Vandana 22-20, 21-18; Manju S George/ Manvi Rao bt Pratima/ Chaitanya 21-6, 21-2.
U-19 (final): Ankita Ashok bt Jacqueline Kunnath 21-18. 21-13.
U-16 (final): Jacqueline R Kunnath bt Anagha Unni 21-16, 21-16. (Semis): Jacqueline bt Sindhu Bharadwaj 21-8, 21-4; Anagha bt Devika Ravindra 21-9, 21-9.
U-13 (final): Anisha D Karumbaiah bt Reshma Karthik 13-21, 21-17, 21-12.