Coimbatore
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After a not so impressive show in the team championship a couple of days ago, the Tamil Nadu players staged a comeback winning five titles in the 77th South Zone inter-State badminton (individual) championship here on Monday.
Tamil Nadu’s Sankar Muthuswamy brought home the team’s first medal, defeating P. Saahas Kumar 21-16, 15-2 (retired) in the men’s singles final. Obviously, the team rejoiced as it was the maiden men’s singles title at the South Zone level.
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In fact, Sankar was down 9-5 in the first game but, from there, he picked up pace and went on to win it with ease. However, in the second, Sankar dominated from the start. He went for the lines and smashed all over the court to take a huge lead. Saahas looked out of sorts at this juncture and soon called it quits.
Lokesh Viswanathan and P. Naveen of the host State followed it up with a thrilling 20-22, 21-18, 21-11 win over Ashish Surya and Vaibhav of Karnataka for the doubles titles
The results (final):
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Men: Singles: Sankar Muthuswamy (TN) bt P. Saahas Kumar (TS) 21-16, 15-2. Doubles: Lokesh Viswanathan & P. Naveen (TN) bt Ashith Surya & Vaibhav (Kar) 20-22, 21-18, 21-11.
Women: Singles: Shriyanshi Valishetty (TS) bt N. Jahnavi (AP) 21-5, 21-19. Doubles: P. Amrutha & Pranjal Prashanth Prabhu (Kat) bt Gayathri Nambiar & Gowri Krishna (Ker) 15-21, 22-20, 21-19.
Mixed doubles: V.S. Varshini & A. Hariharan (TN) bt K Sathwik Reddy & K. Vaishnavi (TS) 16-21, 24-22, 21-8.
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Boys: U-19 singles: N. Pranauv Ram (TS) bt R. Anishraj (TN) 21-17, 21-12. Doubles: S. Bharath Sanjay & M. Swastik (TN) bt A. Charan Ganesh & K. Sri Mohith (AP) 21-18, 21-17.
Girls: U-19 singles: Muskaan Khan (Kar) bt Prasansha Bonam (TS) 13-21, 21-13, 21-12. Doubles: Navya Kanderi & Rashmitha Donepudi (AP) bt B. Prakriti & U. Reshika (TN) 21-15, 21-12.
Mixed doubles: U-19: S. Bharath Sanjai & N. Srinidhi bt Nanda Ghosh & Aman Noushad (Ker) 21-15, 21-9.