Pratul, Malvika, Meghana, Dhruv win titles at badminton meet

Bareily Jan 20 (IANS) Nagpur teenager Malvika Bansod and the seasoned Pratul Joshi claimed the women s singles and men s singles titles respectively at the Dr Akhilesh Das Gupta Memorial All India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament here on Saturday.

Reserve Bank of India s Meghana Jakkampudi and Air India s Dhruv Kapila were the other show stealers in the tournament claiming a double crown each.

The 17-year-old Malvika culminated her giant-killing run by upstaging seventh-seed Vaishnavi Bhale 21-14 21-17 in the final at the Sports Stadium.

Top seed Pratul justified his billing in the men s singles with a hard-fought 21-15 11-21 21-18 victory over 12th seed Kartik Jindal in the final.

Meghana 22 who hails from Vijayawada and her RBI teammate Poorvisha S. Ram won the women s doubles defeating the third seeded pair of Vaishnavi Bhale and Anura Prabhudesai 21-19 21-14.

Dhruv and Andhra Pradesh s G. Krishna Prasad clinched the men s doubles title by overcoming M. Arjun Kumar Reddy and Gouse Shaik 21-13 21-13.

The pairing of Meghana and Dhruv upstaged Sri Krishna Sai Kumar Podile and Rutuparna Panda 22-10 21-10 in the mixed doubles final.

--IANS
pur/dg