Karnataka's Ruth Misha V and Andhra Pradesh's Guru Sai Dutt RMV clinched the boys and girls under-19 titles respectively in the sixth Union Bank of India all-India junior ranking badminton tournament here on Saturday.
In the boys U-19 final, top-seeded Guru played a fine game to get past Madhya Pradesh's fourth-seeded Abhimanyu Singh 21-16, 18-21, 21-13 at the Karnataka Badminton Association's K Raheja stadium.
Ruth rallied well to score over Andhra Pradesh's Sikki Reddy N 22-20, 22-20 in the girls final. This was the Karnataka youngster's maiden National U-19 title win. However, it was not a bad day at all for Sikki as she bagged a double. First, the top seed took the girls U-16 title beating Maharashtra's Prajakta Sawant 21-18, 21-17. Later, she teamed up with state-mate Lavanya and beat Prajakta and Madhya Pradesh's Vijeta Bhargava duo 21-19, 22-20 to win the girls U-16 doubles title.
In the girls U-19 final, Ruth did not have the best of starts as her rival surged to a comfortable 7-2 lead. There were hardly any rallies and it was smooth sailing for Sikki. The trainee of Pullela Gopichand in Hyderabad effected clever drops to Ruth's backhand several times. But then, there was a dramatic change. Sikki began to err a lot and that let Ruth catch up. There was a tough battle towards the end of the game but a determined Ruth edged her rival to take the first game 22-20.
The script of the second game was more or less similar to the first one. Sikki had raced to a 7-1 lead and again seemed to be on cruise mode. However, Ruth fought back splendidly. Once again, there was some determined work from the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy trainee as she fought back from 15-19 down. Ruth clinched three points on the trot but lost one point to trail at 18-20. A netted return and a wide shot by Sikki enabled Ruth to equalise at 20-20. What settled the issue in Ruth's favour was her grit in crunch situations. Ruth hung on and was beaming with the trophy after clinching two more points.
Results (all finals):
Boys: U-19: Guru Sai Dutt RMV (AP) bt Abhimanyu Singh (MP) 21-16, 18-21, 21-13. Doubles: Arun Nandaluri (AI)/ Anil Kumar R (AP) bt Guru Sai Dutt/ Tarun K (AP) 21-17, 16-21, 21-16.
U-16: Prannoy H S (Ker) bt Sai Praneeth B (AP) 15-21, 21-19, 21-17.
Doubles: Raj Kumar/ Pranav Chopra (Pun) bt Sai Praneeth (AP)/ Prannoy (Mah) 21-19, 21-17.
Girls: U-19: Ruth Misha V (Kar) bt Sikki Reddy N (AP) 22-20, 22-20. Doubles: Ashwini Ponnappa/ Nitya Sosale (Kar) bt Vaishali Baria (Guj)/ Prajakta Sawant (Mah) 21-17, 21-15.
U-16: Sikki Reddy N (AP) bt Prajakta Sawant (Mah) 21-18, 21-17. Doubles: Sikki Reddy/ Lavanya (AP) bt Prajakta (Mah)/ Vijeta Bhargava (MP) 21-19, 22-20.
