Sindhu, who trounced eighth seed Vaishnavi K Iyer of Karnataka 21-8, 21-8 in quarterfinal, made her way to the final with relative ease warding off an initial threat from sixth seed Sara Naqvi of Uttar Pradesh 21-16, 21-9 in the semis. Fifth seed Arathi booked her place in the final after a gruelling match against seventh seed Meghana 19-21, 21-17, 22-20.
Top-seeded Sindhu lacked the fluid grace that she showed in her previous encounter but the quality of her smashes and drops helped her fetch a few points early on in the game and shoot into an early lead. Sara, however, made the most of her opponent’s lack of movement and played to all corners of the court to snatch the lead at 16-11. With a delicate drop placed to the right of Sara, Sindhu brought the score to 16-12 and then went on capture nine straight points to take the game 21-16.
Sara, visibly tired after the first game, lost the first four points before scoring a point. Sindhu alternated between pushing the shuttle to the back of the court and delicate drops to build an 18-6 lead as Sara struggled to keep up with her pace. With a fierce smash down the centre and a drop on return, Sindhu took the game and the match 21-9.
Karnataka’s Rajas Jawalkar fought hard and long but went down to Andhra Pradesh’s Saharsh 15-21, 21-15, 21-15 in the boys’ under-16 quarterfinals while sixth seed Jacqueline Rose Kunnath looked no where in contention as she lost to third seed Sikky Reddy N of Andhra Pradesh 21-12, 21-14.
Results (prefix denotes seeding): Semifinal: Boys’ singles: U-16: 1-Pratul Joshi (MP) bt Varun Sarode (Mah) 21-17, 21-16; Rohit Yadav C (AP) bt Saharsh (AP) 21-7, 21-9.
Doubles: Arun George (Ker)/ Santhosh Ravuri (AP) bt Pranav Satheesh/ Sharon Raphel (Ker) 21-11, 21-15; Chaitanya Reddy K/ Chaitanya KP bt Rohit Yadav C (AP)/ Trinankur Nag (WB) 12-21, 21-19, 21-19.
U-19: 1-Sumeet Reddy (AP) bt Sai Praneeth B (AP) 17-21, 21-19, 21-16; Prannoy HS (Ker) bt Eshan Naqvi (Mah) 21-17, 21-17.
Doubles: Pranav Chopra (AI)/ Sai Praneeth B (AP) bt B Ashok/ CR Manikandan (TN) 21-16, 21-10; Prannoy HS (Ker)/ Sumeet Reddy (AP) bt Eshan Naqvi (Mah)/ Manu Atri (UP) 20-22, 21-11, 21-14.
Girls’ singles: U-16: 1-Sindhu PV (AP) bt Sara Naqvi (UP) 21-16, 21-9; 5-Arathi Sara Sunil (Ker) bt Meghana (AP) 19-21, 21-17, 22-20.
Doubles: 1-Maneesha/ Sindhu PV (AP) bt Arathi Sara Sunil (AP)/ Sudha Kalyani (Ker) 21-18, 21-11; 3-Minti Kaur/ Riya Pillai (Mah) bt Reshma Karthik/ Vaishnavi Iyer (Kar) 21-16, 17-21, 21-11.
U-19: 3-Sikky Reddy N (AP) bt 1-Anuradha Shrikhande (AI) 21-14, 21-10; 5-Thulasi PC (Ker) bt 8-Saili Rane (Mah) 21-12, 21-4.
Doubles: Jacqueline (Kar)/ Prajakta Sawant (Mah) bt Anuradha Shrikhande/ Vaishali Baria (AI) 22-20, 18-21, 21-18; Sikky Reddy N (AP)/ Thulasi PC (KeR) bt Gauri Ghate/ Sanyogita G (Mah) 21-10, 21-13.