Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Maharashtra pulled off an impressive and identical 3-0 wins over Karnataka and AAI to bag the men’s and women’s team titles in the 76th Inter-State-Inter-Zonal and 85th Senior National badminton championships here on Tuesday.
While a comfortable victory for AAI men was expected, the abject surrender of its women wasn’t.
In the first match of the women’s summit clash, Maharashtra’s Shruti Mundada was up against Tanya Hemanth. While Shruti is all placements and angles, Tanya is a counterpuncher and a retrieving machine. After a marathon of one hour and 23 minutes, it was Shruti who emerged a 23-21, 23-25, 21-18 winner.
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Mansi Singh, ranked No. 4 in India, was expected to put it across Aalisha Naik of Maharashtra, ranked 18. But Aalisha turned the tables to win in 46 minutes. With a 2-0 lead, it was left to the AAI’s doubles pair of Tanya and Priya Konjengbam to provide some sort of a fight. The Maharashtra pair of Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker proved to be stronger as it won the match and tie in straight games.
As expected, AAI proved much stronger than Karnataka in the men’s category. First, M. Tharun was pitted against S. Bhargav. It was anybody’s match. Tharun imposed his will in crucial moments to win 21-18, 21-18. The second tie between Meiraba Maisnam and M. Raghu turned out to be a humdinger. Raghu proved equal to Meiraba in most of the rallies. In the third and final game, Meiraba’s limitless energy and ability to work out angles on his jump smashes proved the clincher.
There were some anxious moments in the doubles match for AAI. However, Alap Mishra and P.S. Ravikrishna didn’t succumb to pressure, unlike their semifinal match against Railways, to outwit Prakash Raj and Ashith Surya in three tough games to clinch the crucial third match.
This was the first time after a break that the team championships had a separate section for men and women in the Nationals. For a while (till the previous edition in Pune), the mixed team event held sway. As a result, seedings for teams weren’t given this time.
The individual events will begin on December 20, Wednesday.
The results (finals):
Men’s: AAI bt Karnataka 3-0 (M. Tharun bt S. Bhargav 21-18, 21-18; Meiraba Maisnam bt M. Raghu 22-20, 16-21, 21-11; Alap Mishra & P.S. Ravikrishna bt Prakash Raj & Ashith Surya 21-11, 16-21, 21-19).
Women’s: Maharashtra bt AAI 3-0 (Shruti Mundada bt Tanya Hemanth 23-21, 23-25, 21-18; Aalisha Naik bt Mansi Singh 21-18, 12-21, 21-19; Simran Singhi & Ritika Thaker bt Tanya & Priya Konjengbam 21-14, 21-18).
