<p>A gritty Kiran George rallied from a game down to beat Harshit Aggarwal and lift the men’s title at the All-India senior ranking badminton tournament here.<br /><br />After a sluggish start, the Kerala lad bounced back to defeat his higher-ranked opponent in three games 15-21, 21-19, 21-19 at the Karnataka Badminton Association (KBA) on Sunday.<br /><br />Both players were neck-and-neck at 7-7 in the first game, after which Air India’s Harshit showed great recovery skills to pull away.<br /><br />Unforced errors began creeping into Kiran’s game and Harshit was in no mood to relent, taking the first game 21-15.<br /><br />But the 17-year-old Kiran didn’t let the disappointment of the first game deter him and kept pace with Harshit, who began doing all the running in the second.<br /><br />A couple of missed smashes by Harshit gave Kiran a 19-16 lead and he didn’t relinquish it, forcing the tie into a decider after a 21-19 win in the second.<br /><br />With neither player willing to give a quarter, it was even stevens at 18 apiece in the third game.<br /><br />Unfortunately for Harshit, he hit a couple of smashes long and the scoreboard now read 20-17 in Kiran’s favour. But the 21-year-old staged a mini-comeback, closing the gap to just one point at 20-19.<br /><br />At the crucial moment, his serve let him down and Kiran capitalised to seal the deal.<br /><br />Earlier, in the women’s singles final, sixth seeded Neha Pandit was forced to dig deep against Vrushali G, ten spots below her in the seedings, before wearing the crown with a 21-18, 15-21, 21-19 victory.<br /><br />KBA also felicitated state player Archana Pai who scored 97.5% in the PUC examinations. Archana had represented Karnataka in the women’s category at the Inter-state South Zone championship held at Ottapalam last year.<br /><br />Results (all finals): Men: Singles: Kiran George bt 4-Harshit Aggarwal 15-21, 21-19, 21-19.<br /><br />Doubles: 1-Arun George/Sanyam Shukla bt 4-Chaitanya Reddy K/Hemanagendra Babu T 21-14, 12-21, 21-14.<br /><br />Women: Singles: 6-Neha Pandit bt 16-Vrushali G 21-18, 15-21, 21-19.<br /><br />Doubles: Sruthi KP/Purnima Devi N bt 3-Haritha MH/Anura Prabhudesai (walkover)<br /><br />Mixed doubles: Nanda Gopal K/ Mahima Aggarwal bt Shlok Ramchandran/ Arundhati Pantawane 11-21, 21-13, 12-3 (retired).<br /><br /> </p>
<p>A gritty Kiran George rallied from a game down to beat Harshit Aggarwal and lift the men’s title at the All-India senior ranking badminton tournament here.<br /><br />After a sluggish start, the Kerala lad bounced back to defeat his higher-ranked opponent in three games 15-21, 21-19, 21-19 at the Karnataka Badminton Association (KBA) on Sunday.<br /><br />Both players were neck-and-neck at 7-7 in the first game, after which Air India’s Harshit showed great recovery skills to pull away.<br /><br />Unforced errors began creeping into Kiran’s game and Harshit was in no mood to relent, taking the first game 21-15.<br /><br />But the 17-year-old Kiran didn’t let the disappointment of the first game deter him and kept pace with Harshit, who began doing all the running in the second.<br /><br />A couple of missed smashes by Harshit gave Kiran a 19-16 lead and he didn’t relinquish it, forcing the tie into a decider after a 21-19 win in the second.<br /><br />With neither player willing to give a quarter, it was even stevens at 18 apiece in the third game.<br /><br />Unfortunately for Harshit, he hit a couple of smashes long and the scoreboard now read 20-17 in Kiran’s favour. But the 21-year-old staged a mini-comeback, closing the gap to just one point at 20-19.<br /><br />At the crucial moment, his serve let him down and Kiran capitalised to seal the deal.<br /><br />Earlier, in the women’s singles final, sixth seeded Neha Pandit was forced to dig deep against Vrushali G, ten spots below her in the seedings, before wearing the crown with a 21-18, 15-21, 21-19 victory.<br /><br />KBA also felicitated state player Archana Pai who scored 97.5% in the PUC examinations. Archana had represented Karnataka in the women’s category at the Inter-state South Zone championship held at Ottapalam last year.<br /><br />Results (all finals): Men: Singles: Kiran George bt 4-Harshit Aggarwal 15-21, 21-19, 21-19.<br /><br />Doubles: 1-Arun George/Sanyam Shukla bt 4-Chaitanya Reddy K/Hemanagendra Babu T 21-14, 12-21, 21-14.<br /><br />Women: Singles: 6-Neha Pandit bt 16-Vrushali G 21-18, 15-21, 21-19.<br /><br />Doubles: Sruthi KP/Purnima Devi N bt 3-Haritha MH/Anura Prabhudesai (walkover)<br /><br />Mixed doubles: Nanda Gopal K/ Mahima Aggarwal bt Shlok Ramchandran/ Arundhati Pantawane 11-21, 21-13, 12-3 (retired).<br /><br /> </p>
