Badminton Nationals: Unnati Hooda, Anmol Kharb power Haryana to women’s team title

Young Indian shuttlers Unnati Hooda, Devika Sihag and Anmol Kharb led Haryana to the women’s team title at the Inter-State Inter-Zonal Badminton Championships in Vijayawada.

They defeated a strong Andhra Pradesh team, led by two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, in the final to defend their title in dominant fashion.

Sindhu, returning to the national championships after seven years, had earlier led Andhra Pradesh to a 3–0 quarterfinal win after winning both her singles and doubles matches against Uttarakhand.

However, Andhra Pradesh chose not to field Sindhu in the final, a decision that backfired as Navya Kanderi and Surya Tamiri lost their matches.

Navya fought hard but went down to Devika Sihag in a tight three-game match that lasted an hour, while Surya lost to Unnati Hooda in straight games.

Unnati then paired up with Anmol Kharb to win the women’s doubles match against Navya and Surya, sealing the title for Haryana.

Tamil Nadu clinch the men's team title

Tamil Nadu denied Haryana a clean sweep by clinching the men’s team title after a hard-fought 3–2 win in the final.

Haryana made a strong start, winning the first two singles matches as Manraj Singh and Bharat Raghav defeated Sankar Muthusamy and Rithvik S, respectively.

Tamil Nadu then staged an impressive comeback, winning three consecutive matches, beginning with a men’s doubles victory by international pair Hariharan and Ruban.

This was followed by Sugi Sai Bala Singh, who defeated Gautam Arora in straight games in the third singles match to level the tie at 2–2.

The decisive point came from Naveen P and Lokesh P, who edged past Mayank and Aaryan Sapiah in a gruelling one-hour-and-10-minute encounter to seal the title.