CHANDIGARH: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) emerged as the surprise packet as the underdogs set up summit clash with formidable Petroleum Sports Promotional Board (
PSPB) in the 71st Yonex Sunrise Senior National Badminton Championship at the Punjab University Hall here on Monday.
Prajakta Sawant and
Chirag Shetty turned out to be the chief architects of AAI's come-from-behind 3-2 victory against Telangana.
Both Sawant and Shetty won their two doubles matches each to shatter the hopes of Telangana.
The southern side were leading 2-0 but AAI bounced back in style to grab the next three doubles in a nail-biting semi-final, which went to the wire.
After winning their respective men's and women's doubles, Shetty and Sawant combined well in the decider to notch up an exciting win. Both Shetty and Sawant displayed extraordinary stamina and firepower under tremendous pressure to help their team enter the final for the very first time.
PSPB had no trouble in dispatching Haryana 3-0 in the other semis.
B Sai Praneeth and
Rituparna Das won their respective singles with ease. However in the men's doubles, PSPB duo of
Arun Vishnu and
Tarun Kona lost the first singles against
Ketan Chahal and
Saurabh Sharma. The young Haryana duo then lost the steam and could not maintain the tempo.
Earlier in the quarterfinal, Maharashtra put up a good fight but could not stop the mighty PSPB. Maharashtra's best chance was to win the first singles. Harsheel Dani almost did it against RMV Gurusaidutt. In an exciting opening clash, Guru overcame an inspired Dani in three games which lasted for more than an hour. Trailing initially, Guru used his vast experience to stop tall Mumbai left-hander with a hard-fought 25-23, 17-21, 21-18 victory.
The Maharashtra doubles pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Akshay Raut also stretched PSPB duo of Pranav Chopra and Sai Praneeth to three games but could not prevent a clean sweep.
In other quarters, Haryana downed hosts Chandigarh 3-1, AAI dismissed Uttar Pradesh 3-1, while Telangana prevailed over Assam 3-0.
RESULTS (Team Event)Semifinals: PSPB bt Haryana 3-0 (B Sai Praneeth bt
Aman Kumar 21-10, 21-16; Rituparna Das bt
Shivani Singh 21-8, 21-13; Arun Vishnu-Tarun Kona bt Ketan Chahal-Saurabh Sharma 19-21, 21-6, 21-16).
AAI bt Telangana 3-2 (
Kaushal Dharmamer lost to
Siril Varma 15-21, 14-21;
Rasika Raje lost to
G Vrushali 22-24, 14-21; Chirag Shetty-MR Arjun bt C Rahul Yadav-Arjun Kumar Reddy 20-22, 21-11, 21-17; Prajakta Sawant-JK Malavika bt G Vrushali-Sri Krishna Priya 21-18, 21-17; Prajakta Sawant-Chirag Shetty bt Sri Krishna Priya-Arjun Kumar Reddy 21-19, 21-19).
Quarterfinals: PSPB bt Maharashtra 3-0; Haryana bt Chandigarh 3-1; AAI bt Uttar Pradesh 3-1; Telangana bt Assam 3-0.