Prakash edges Rajas for under-19 title

A student of Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College, the 17-year-old Prakash, playing his first final in nearly a year, looked set to land the spoils easily as his opponent, sixth seed Rajas, caved in in the first game.

Rajas put up a better show in the second, but the effort came a tad late. Rajas had earlier went down 17-21, 18-21 to Abhishek Yeligar in the under-16 final.

Prakash, who had lost to Portugal’s Pedro Martin in the second round of the Dutch Junior event this year, showed a lot of intensity and speed.

He pushed Rajas to the back court with his acute angled smashes and then backed it up with near-net drops to jump to 11-5 lead in the opening game. Rajas’ footwork was far from perfect and on several occasions he gave up on chasing the shuttle, handing Prakash some easy points.

Prakash hurried to a 5-0 lead in the second game and there were still no signs of a fight from Rajas.

But the sixth seed managed to capitalise on Prakash’s erratic placement to reduce the gap to 7-11. Prakash, who looked completely in control until then, suddenly looked a bit weary.

Rajas, seeing his opponent’s obvious discomfort, pushed him to the back court and made him run the length. But Prakash managed to hold his nerve and take the crown home.
In the boys’ under-13 final, Mithun Manjunath emerged the victor with a 21-19, 21-16 win over Farid S.

In the girls’ under-16 final, Poorvisha S Ram staged an amazing comeback to take the crown with a 21-15, 19-21, 21-14 win over Sindhu Bharadwaj.

Results (all finals): Boys: U-13: 2-Mithun Manjunath bt 6-Farid S 21-19, 21-16. U-16: 2-Abhishek Yeligar bt 1-Rajas Jawalkar 21-17, 21-18. Doubles: Abhishek Yeligar/  Rajas Jawalkar bt R Kaushik/ Jaswanth Gowda 21-15, 21-16. U-19: 2-Prakash Jolly bt 6-Rajas Jawalkar 21-17, 21-19.

Doubles: Prathap Menon/ Sunil Verma bt Prakash Jolly/ Sonic Prabhdesai 22-20, 21-16.
Girls: U-13: 1-Monisha A Gowda bt 3-Mahima Agarwal 21-15, 21-18.

U-16: 2-Poorvisha S Ram bt 4-Sindhu Bharadwaj 21-15, 19-21, 21-14.

Doubles: Parvathy SK/ Rishika Radhakrishnan bt Monisha AG/ Mahima A 21-15, 21-14.