National Badminton C'ships: Mithun, Anupama Upadhyay win singles titles

Anupama Upadhyaya, a former world junior no. 1, and Mithun Manjunath won the women's and men's singles titles in the Senior National Badminton Championship on Tuesday at the Balewadi stadium, Pune.

18-year-old Anupama defeated Aakarshi Kashyap in the women's singles final 20-22, 21-17, 24-22 in an hour and 18 minutes. Mithun then easily defeated Priyanshu Rajawat in the men's singles summit match 21-16, 21-11 in just 38 minutes.

Top seed Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly were crowned as the new champions in Women's doubles while T Hemanagendra Babu and Kanika Kanwal won the mixed doubles title.

S Kushal Raj and S Prakash Raj's men's doubles team won the men's doubles championship.

The men's and women's singles were in total contrast when it came to the competition. The women's singles championship match was a tight one, with both players battling it out for every point while Mithu Manjunath cruised in his victory against Priyanshu Rajawat.

In Women's singles, with seven of the next eight points won, the seasoned Aakarshi rallied from 11-15 in the first game to win it on the second game point.

Anupama, however, was even more motivated to attack once the result was reversed; she started the second with a 3-0 edge, increased it to 9-1, and then kept it to force a tiebreaker.

When she took a 17-10 lead in the final, the 18-year-old from Haryana appeared to be racing away with the victory and the prize money of Rs 3.25 lakh. Aakarshi, though, wasn't ready to give up.

Anupama triumphed over Aakarshi for the first time ever, showed aggression when it mattered, and capitalized on her opponent's error to win the most important title of her fledgling career.

In the men's final, Mithun's strong defense and game plan of not letting Rajawat get under the shuttle worked in his favor handing him the title of national champion.