Chandigarh’s Vrinda stamps her authority

Kartik.Sood@timesgroup.com
Chandigarh: Circa 2012, an 11-year-old Chandigarh girl handed a crushing defeat to then top city shuttler Naina Trehan and booked a berth for herself in the nationals. Her mother Sonia Rana sunk to her feet and started crying when she heard that her daughter Vrinda had made it to the nationals — just six months after she was introduced to the game.
Three years on, the 4 feet 7 inch (144cm) Vrinda repeated the feat and drubbed Delhi-based Vibhuti Sharma in a three-set encounter that lasted nearly 40 minutes in the ongoing 26th Krishna Khaitan All India Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament at the Panjab University badminton hall, here on Thursday.
Though her height lands her in a tough corner, but her power and immense stamina overshadows the weakness. Wrinkles of grave worries could be seen on her mother’s forehead as Vrinda lost the first set by 18-21 after a tough fight.
Thereafter, Vrinda had a few words with her coach and capitalized on her opponent’s loose shots, clinching the second set by a 21-16 margin. In the decider, as the shuttle was missed by her opponent the referee pointed to Vrinda’s court, declaring her the winner. The final set score being 21-18 in her favour. Vrinda’s mother jumped with joy letting out a loud ‘yes’ and punched the air with her clenched fist.
Vrinda, drenched in sweat, came to her coach, 64-year-old Surender Mahajan, and touched his feet to seek blessings after her scintillating win. She will now lock horns with fourth seed Ashi Rawat of the famed Gopichand Academy.
Garima Singh, another Chandigarh girl, went down to tenth seed Telangana’s Trisha Hegde — a trainee of the Prakash Padukone Academy. Garima attacked from the very beginning, but Trisha kept hitting back with some deft touch play near the net.
After exchanging early punches, Garima raced to a 17-14 lead hitting a couple of open body cross court smashes — to which Trisha had no reply. Garima looked tentative, eager to finish off the point, ever-searching for opportunities to lay an early smash. But, Trisha controlled the pace of the rally.
Trisha moved the shuttle with poise and maturity around the court, making Garima dance to her tunes as she took the first game 23-21 after Garima couldn’t capitalize on a set point that she had earned. The pro-active Chandigarh eve established a lead in the second set too, but once again erred near the net and some erratic serves cost her the game and the match. She lost the second set 21-14.
Results
U-19 mixed doubles: Navaneeth Bokka and Sahithi Bandi bt Sankar Muthusamy S and Lakshmi Priyanka SS 21-12, 21-11, Ayush Makhija and Aruni Chauhan bt Ankur Dhiman and Mallika Dang 21-17, 21-19, Shubham Yadav and Tapaswini Samantroy bt Talwinder Singh Lalh and Rashi V 21-17, 22-20, Harsh Chaplot and Mansee Chauhan bt Sanchit Kumar Pal and Bharti Pal 22-20, 21-16, Sanjai Srivatsa D and Thanushree R bt Lalit Dahiya and Daman Rajkumar 19-21, 21-10, 21-9, Abhyansh Singh and Shruti Mishra bt Nabeel Ahmed and Palak Thakkar 21-9, 21-3, Abhishek Saini and Kosha Trivedi bt Sudhish Venkant G and Nila V (walkover), Edwin Joy and Nafeesah Sara Siraj bt Siddhant Salar and Mayuri Yadav 21-17, 21-16, Sidhant Chopra and Kavya Gandhi bt Aniketh Reddy K and Abhilasha A 21-15, 14-21, 21-18, Sai Pavan Karri and Riya Arolkar bt Mauryan K Arulbala R 21-12, 21-18, Denis Shrivastava and Aarya More bt Sarath D and Priya Devi Konjengbam 16-21, 21-16, 21-17, Sai Pratheek Krishna Prasad and Ashwini Bhat K bt Ashif Kamal and Anju Verma 21-16, 21-6, Siddarth Elango and Varshini V S bt Lakshay Saroha and Nikita 21-12, 21-14, Sohit Hooda and Teenu Dahiya bt Gaurav Naman Singh and Samriddhi Singh14-21, 21-15, 25-23, Qadeer Moinuddin Mohammed and Ramya CV bt Shubham Anano and Lovely 21-15, 21-18, Sri Krishna Sai Kumar Podile and Srishti Jupudi bt Kevin Wong CC and Muskaan Taya 15-21, 21-16, 21-13
Boys U-17 singles: Dhruv Rawat bt Dharan Kumar Rajulapati 21-12, 21-11, Kavin Thangam bt Oiasvi Sharma 21-12, 13-21, 21-15, Pranay R bt Sidarth T 21-18, 21-14, Saharsh Mohan bt Suraj Chakroborty 14-21, 21-14, 21-19, Iman Sonowal bt Tarun Reddy K 21-13, 21-7, Rohan Thool bt Harsh Arora 21-5, 21-13, Vikas Yadav bt Tejas Kallolkar 21-15, 19-21, 23-21, Koushik S bt Ravi 21-19, 10-21, 21-15, Rohit Singh bt Mohit Goury 21-19, 17-21, 24-22, Aniruddh Kushwaha bt Tanay Patankar 21-9, 21-5, Ayush Raj Gupta bt Sarath D 12-21, 21-19, 21-13, Siddhant Babbar bt Srayas P V 21-18, 24-22, Bidyasagar Salam bt Mukul Teotia 14-21, 21-12, 21-9, Siddhanth Gupta bt Manas Bajaj 21-16, 18-21, 21-13, Rajan Yadav bt Govind K 21-15, 30-29, Rahoul Kanne bt Srikar Madina walkover, Rohan Gurbani bt Akash Singh 21-16, 22-20, Siddhartha Mishra bt Varun Trikha 21-16, 16-21, 21-17, Sai Charan Koya bt Nithin HV 21-12, 22-20, Himanshu Dabas bt Anirudh J 21-11, 23-21, Shubham Patel bt Ishaan Bhatnagar 21-13, 21-17, Rithin B bt Tukum Laa 16-21, 21-14, 21-8,Amit Rathore bt Gautam Walia 21-10, 22-20, Karan Negi bt Sanjeeva Rao Relly 21-11, 18-21, 21-11, Jayant Rana bt Sankar Muthusamy S 21-9, 21-16, Priyanshu Rajawat bt Abhinn Vasisth 21-9, 21-12, Aakash Yadav bt Arjun Rehani 21-15, 21-13, Bhargav S bt Sankarprasad Udayakumar 21-11, 21-19, Pranav Rao Gandham bt Vikash Prabhu R 21-18, 21-16, Shubham Anano bt Tushar Kumar Setu 21-15, 14-21, 21-18, Sathish Kumar K bt Bhawesh Pandey 20-22, 21-6, 21-9
Girls U-17 singles: Malvika Bansod bt Jahnavi Nammi 21-6, 21-5, Keerthana P Shroff bt Ananya Goel 21-13, 21-11, Nivetha M bt Kaivalya Lakshmi Yadavalli 21-13, 16-21, 21-13, Mrunmayee Deshpande bt Ashrita Yarlagadda 21-9, 21-10, Ramya CV bt Khushi Gupta 21-12, 18-21, 21-17,Mansi Singh bt Dhriti Patel 21-13, 21-17, Devika Sihag bt Naina Goyat 21-15, 23-21, Unnati Bisht bt Neha Shrikhande 21-7, 21-12, Taneesha Singh bt Hazel Sehrawat 21-10, 21-15, Winona S bt Megha Pothamsetty 21-12, 21-18, Abhilasha A bt Kriti Bharadwaj 21-13, 18-21, 21-17, Simran Singhi bt Tanya Hemanth 21-15, 21-16, Nikita bt Pranavi N 21-18, 21-3, Medha Shashidharan bt Keyura Mopati 21-12, 21-16, Deyashi Kanjibillya bt Aditi Verma 21-17, 21-11
Boys U-19 singles: Jaswanth D bt Rithin B 21-9, 21-16, Mohit Goury bt Srayas P V21-18, 21-17, Alap Mishra bt Maheeteja Nimmagadda 21-8, 21-13, Sai Pratheek Krishna Prasad bt Sarath D 21-18, 16-21, 21-19, Aman Farogh Sanjay bt Siddhant Salar 21-9, 21-9, Bidyasagar Salam bt Adheep Gupta 21-16, 21-12