The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Prannoy, Sikky triumph

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Saturday, Jun 20, 2009
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Prannoy, Sikky triumph

Special Correspondent

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

YOUNG CHAMPS: Winners of the All-India Junior ranking badminton tournament. (From left): Pratul Joshi (boys’ U-16), P.V. Sindhu (girls’ U-16), Sikki Reddy (girls’ U-19) and Prannoy (boys’ U-19).

BANGALORE: On a day when most of the finals went the distance, unseeded H.S. Prannoy of Kerala stunned the top seed, Sumeet Reddy of Andhra Pradesh 17-21, 21-18, 21-14 and claimed the boys’ under-19 singles in the Union Bank all India junior ranking badminton championship at the Raheja-KBA Stadium courts here on Friday.

The defending champion and third seed, Sikky Reddy, rode on her experience to weather a stiff challenge from P.C. Thulasi of Kerala at 14-21, ,2-19,21-13 and retained her girls’ under-19 singles title. Earlier in the day, Sikky won the doubles title, partnering Thulasi.

In the boys’ under-19 singles final, Sumeet prevailed in the tightly-contested first game, maintaining his early lead, but in the second, Prannoy playing a good line and length wiped out a mid game deficit (11-14 ) and went on take to the game and levelled the match. In the decider, Prannoy was all guile and guts as he spun a web around a dithering Summet to emege as a worthy winner.

Pep and power

In the under-19 girs’ final, Thulasi played with lot of pep and power to yank the first game off the first game off a more seasoned Sikky Reddy. But Sikky hit back in the second game, and came good on big points in crunch situation to take a close game. In the decider, an error-prone Thulasi was no match for a rampaging Sikky, who just steamed ahead with her packed half-smashes to a deserving triumph.

In the under-16 section, the top seeds Pratul Joshi and P.V. Sindu bagged the boys’ and girls’ singles titles respectively in contrasting fashion.

The results (all finals):

Boys: Under-19 singles: H.S. Prannoy (Ker) bt Sumeet Reddy (AP) 17-21,21-18, 21-14. Doubles: Pranav Chopra (AI) & Sai Praneeth (AP) bt H.S. Pranoy & Sumeet Reddy 21-12, 21-15.

Under-16 singles: Pratul Joshi (MP) bt C. Rohit Yadav (AP) 21-19, 13-21, 21-19. Doubles: Arun George (Ker ) & Santhosh Ravuri (AP) bt Chaitanya Reddy. & K.P. Chaitanya 21-7 21-13 .

Girls: Under-16 singles: P.V. Sindhu (AP) bt Arathi Sara Sunil (Ker) 21-12, 21-16. Doubles: Maneesha & P.V. Sindhu (AP) bt Minti Kaur & Riya Pillai (Mah) 21-17, 21-17,

Under-19 singles: N. Sikky Reddy ( AP) bt P.C. Thulasi (Ker) 14-21,21-19,21-13. Doubles: N. Sikky Reddy. (AP) . & P.C. Thulasi (Ker) bt Jacqueline Kunnath (Kar) & Prajakta Sawant (Mah) 21-17 21-11.

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