Rituparna stuns defending champ

New Delhi: The Indian badminton circuit has witnessed a lot of change lately. If youngsters like K. Srikanth, R.M.V. Gurusaidutt or B. Sai Praneeth are ready to take the centre stage on the men’s circuit, country’s top junior Rituparna Das is making steady progress in the women’s section.

The ongoing senior national badminton championships at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here too was a witness to it. The penultimate day of the event was dominated by Srikanth, Rituparna and tournament favourite P.V. Sindhu, all of whom marched into the finals.

The 20-year-old Srikanth and Rituparna, just 17, created the biggest surprises of the day after they knocked out defending champions Parupalli Kashyap and Sayali Gokhale in their respective men’s and women’s singles semi-finals.

While Srikanth stunned world no. 14 Kashyap 21-14, 21-19, West Bengal-born Rituparna rallied to beat Sayali 13-21, 21-13, 21-14 in a 53-minute match. “This has been my biggest win so far. Playing Sindhu tomorrow will be tough. She is in form but I will give my best,” said Rituparna.

For Srikanth, it was sweet revenge as he had lost to Kashyap in last year’s nationals semis. “It was a really good match. We play each other every day at the Gopichand Academy, so we knew each other’s game.”

Srikanth was the first to get off the blocks as he took points by virtue of his down the line smashes. Kashyap seemed far from his best as his strokes were not able to stop his junior sparring partner.

Leading 8-5, Srikanth raced to a 20-12 lead. But Kashyap managed to save two game points, before conceding. Srikanth started in the same vein in the second as Kashyap struggled with his strokes. He though made the points at level at 13-13 and went on till 19-all but Srikanth ran away with the match with a back hand smash. In the other semi-final, second seed Gurusaidutt R.M.V edged past sixth seed Sai Praneeth B. 21-13, 21-19.

Other results (SFs): Women’s doubles: 2-Jwala Gutta/Ashwini Ponnappa bt 5-Prajakta Sawant/Aarti Sara Sunil 21-8, 21-15; 1-Pradnya Gadre/Siki Reddy bt 3-Aparna Balan/PV Sindhu 21-16, 21-18

Men’s doubles: 1-Pranaav Jerry Chopra/ Akshay Dewalkar bt Rupesh Kumar /Sanave Thomas 19-21, 21-14, 21-18; 2-Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy bt  3-Alwin Francis/Arun Vishnu 18-21, 23-21, 21-18.