Sridhar, Ashwini clinch senior ranking badminton title

Beijing Olympian Anup Sridhar and former Junior National Champion Tanvi Lad today crowned themselves as singles champions after notching up contrasting victories respectively in the men's and women's finals of the All-India Senior Ranking Badminton tournament here.

Former National champion Sridhar shocked his rival Sourabh Varma, ranked one place below him in the tournament, with his calculated aggression to chalk up a hard-fought 21-18, 8-21, 21-14 win in an hour.

Tanvi, on the other hand, evaporated the hopes of Rituparna Das into thin air by smacking her out of the title race with 21-17, 21-19 win in straight sets.

Sridhar, seeded second, began the campaign taking initial lead in the closely fought battle in the first game. Varma fought back and brought the game closer only to lose the nerve-wracking first game 18-21.

In the second game, Varma regrouped himself and smashed his way to win the second set 21-8. Also, Sridhar's unforced errors gave much-needed boost to Varma's confidence, who grabbed it with two hands to square the contest 1-1.

Having equalised the rubber, Varma had great chance to race ahead of Sridhar during the decider, but spilled it after he gave ample opportunity to his opponent to pocket the deciding set 21-14.

In women's singles final, Tanvi kept breathing down the neck of Rituparna, who gave a tough fight, before the third seed cliched the first game 21-17.

Tanvi played some delectable shots across the court, dismantling the confidence of Rituparna, who gave her opponent a hot chase.

Having bagged the first game, Tanvi did not lose the hold over the second seed and brought down the opponent to her knees with some lovely shots. No match for such skills, Rituparna conceded the match as Tanvi crowned herself with the coveted title.

Bangaloreans had another occasion to cherish about when city shuttler Ashwini Ponappa in partnership with Tarun Kona thrashed combo of Nanda Gopal and N Siki Reddy 21-14, 21-14 in the mixed doubles final.

Ashwini and Tarun totally dominated the match with aggressive play and confident game near the net. They did not let their opponent pair crawl back into the first game and outsmarted them 21-14.

The second game was also pocketed easily by Ashwini and Tarun with some unstoppable smashes, galloping to clinch the second set 21-14.

Results of women's doubles: J Meghana/N Siki Reddy bt Prajakta Sawant/Arathi Sara Sunil 21-19 21-19

Men's Doubles: Chopra Pranaav Jerry/Akshay Dewalkar bt K nanda Gopal/T Hemanagendra Babu 21-9 22-20.