The women’s singles finalists are just 16 and 15 at the 85th senior National badminton championships here.
On Saturday, the 16-year-old Anmol Kharb of Haryana, the reigning under-17 girls’ champion, showed confidence and maturity beyond her age to stun second seed Ashmita Chaliha of Petroleum 21-17, 21-19 while the 15-year-old Tanvi Sharma of Punjab overcame a spirited challenge from Assam’s Isharani Baruah to win 21-15, 20-22, 21-14.
Telangana’s M. Tharun, who faced his first big test, scripted a 21-11, 16-21, 21-19 victory over Bharat Raghav of Haryana in the men’s singles semifinals. Tharun, seeded fourth, will face Chirag Sen of Indian Railways after the latter produced an outstanding display to get past second seed Kiran George of RBI 21-18, 21-18. Bharat was subdued throughout the first game and only in the second period of the second half did he start attacking with vigour.
In the third, Tharun led 20-17 but received a yellow card for delaying things. At 20-18, he protested a line call and hit a forehand long. Just when it looked like he would lose his cool, Tharun finished the contest with a forehand crosscourt winner. Chirag made too many unforced errors in the first game as he took time to settle down. He, however, found his rhythm when it mattered most and entered his maiden final.
Exceptional effort
It was an exceptional effort from Chirag to keep a player of Kiran’s calibre quiet. The former’s smashes were mostly on target, rattling the latter.
In the women’s semifinal, Anmol pushed Ashmita to all corners of the court. She was dictated most of the rallies from the back of the court and was also sharp at the net. Ashmita made it worse for herself by committing too many unforced errors. Barring a few powerful crosscourt smashes, she couldn’t do much and made an exit.
The results (semifinals):
Men: Singles: M. Tharun (TS) bt Bharat Raghav (Har) 21-11, 16-21, 21-19; Chirag Sen (Rlys) bt Kiran George (RBI) 21-18, 21-18.
Doubles: P. Vishnuvardhan Goud & G. Krishna Prasad (TS) bt Hariharan Amsakarunan & R. Ruban Kumar (TN) 21-16, 21-12; K. Pruthvi Roy & Suraj Goala (Asm) bt P. Naveen & V. Lokesh (TN) 21-12, 21-16.
Women: Singles: Anmol Kharb (Har) bt Ashmita Chaliha (Pet) 21-17, 21-19; Tanvi Sharma (Pun) bt Ishrani Baruah (Asm) 21-15, 20-22, 21-14.
Doubles: Ritika Thaker & Simran Singhi (Mah) bt P. Amrutha & Pranjal Prabhu Chimulkar (Kar) 21-11, 21-11; Priya Devi Konjenbgam & Sruti Mishra (UP) bt Mrunmayee Deshpande & Prerana Alvekar (Mah) 21-13, 21-11.
Mixed doubles: Dhruv Kapila (Pun) & Tanisha Crasto (Goa) bt Deep Rambhiya & Akshya Warang (Mah) 21-11, 21-13; Nitin Kumar & Navdha Manglam (Del) bt H. V. Nithin (Kar) & K. Maneesha (RBI) 10-21, 21-18, 21-19.
