Nikhit, Akshay enter final

Nikhit Laxman and Akshay Srinivas S, seeded first and second respectively, registered straight game victories to set-up a cracking boys’ under-15 singles final in the W Suresh Kumar Memorial-AISS Global 3-Star ranking badminton tournament on Monday.

Nikhit beat Nikhilshyam Sriram 25-23, 21-10 in the first semifinal while Akshay eased to a 21-13, 21-19 victory over third seed Abhi Amudan in the second last-four match.

Meanwhile, Nikhilshyam and Rohan Kamath clinched the U-15 boys’ doubles title, defeating Abhiram K and Kiran B 21-12, 18-21, 21-18 in the final.

Results (prefix denotes seedings): Boys: U-15: Singles, semifinals: 1-Nikhit Laxman (WPBA) bt 4-Nikhilshyam Sriram (NGV) 25-23, 21-10; 2-Akshay Srinivas S (NGV) bt 3-Abhi Amudan (RBA) 21-13, 21-19.
Doubles, final: 3-Nikhilshyam Sriram/ Rohan Kamath (NGV) bt Abhiram K/ Kiran B (BBCE) 21-12, 18-21, 21-18.
U-13: Singles, semifinals: 1-Kartik Vyakaranam (NGV) bt 8-Chinmaya Venkatesh (WPBA) 12-21, 21-12, 24-22; 2-Tejas Sanjay Kallolkar (Belagavi) bt Saket CS (SNC) 22-20, 21-12.
Doubles, final: 2-Kartik Vyakaranam (NGV)/ Saket CS (SNC) bt 1-Ajinkya Joshi/ Tejas Sanjay Kallolkar (Belagavi) 22-24, 21-14, 21-16.
Girls: U-15: Singles, semifinals: 1-Apeksha Nayak (PPBA) bt 8-Drithi Yatheesh (ECA) 17-21, 21-11, 21-12; 2-Archana Pai (PPBA) bt 5-Mithula U K (PPBA) 21-17 21-16 .
Doubles, final: 4-Apeksha Nayak (PPBA)/ Drithi Yatheesh (ECA) bt 3-Archana Pai (PPBA)/ Reenu Tirumal (NGV) 21-18, 21-15.
U-13: Singles, semifinals: 1-Shivani (ECA) bt 8-Richa Muktibodh (Reliance) 16-21, 26-24, 21-16; 2-Drithi Yatheesh (ECA) bt 4-Sheethal D (PPBA) 21-10, 21-6.
Doubles: final: 1-Prarthana Vasudevan (NGV)/ Shivani A Pathi (ECA) bt 2-Sheethal D/ Trisha Hegde (PPBA) 21-17, 22-20.