GPBL: Malnad Falcons, KGF Wolves enter Super League stage

Bengaluru, Aug 17 (IANS) Malnad Falcons garnered six points in their last league tie of Group B, defeating Mysore Panthers 6-1 to swell their total to 15 points while KGF Wolves lost to Bengaluru Lions 3-4 but yet qualified for the Super League on the virtue of total points in the Grand Prix Badminton League (GPBL), played at the Karnataka Badminton Association, here on Wednesday.Janani Ananthakumar gave the Lions a successful start against Gloria Vinayakumar by winning the Wolves' trump match. Hemantha Gowda and Prakash Raj attempted a comeback for KGF Wolves by defeating Sanjeeth S and Vaibhav S in the men's doubles. Bhargav S successfully defended the trump match with a win over Naren S Iyer in the singles to give the Lions a 3-0 lead. Nithin H and Janani Ananthakumar continued the winning streak for the Lions in the mixed doubles against Suhas V and Gloria Vinayakumar. With the qualification hinging on the Super Match, Wolves secured three points to add to their earlier tally of 10 points to finish second behind Malnad Falcons (15 points) in their group.Earlier, Panthers began on a winning note with their star player Tanya Hemanth beating Drithhi Venaktesh. The doubles pair of Mithun Manjunath and Puthvi K Roy earned two points via their trump match to help Falcons go 2-1 ahead. Shamanth Rao Kidiyoor then made it 3-1 with an upset win over favourite Rohit Mariswamy. The Panthers reduced the lead with a win in the mixed doubles. Hoping to garner maximum points, Panthers declared the Super Match as their trump match, only to lose and end in the negative.Results:Malnad Falcons beat Mysore Panthers 6-1WS: Drithi Yateesh lost to Tanya Hemanth 8-15, 15-11, 5-15; MD: Mithun Manjunath / Pruthvi (Trump) bt BM Rahul / Chiranjeevi Reddy 15-12, 15-12; MS: Shamanth Rao Kidiyoor bt Rohith Mariswamy 15-11, 15-14; MXD: Aravind Kongara / Driti Yateesh lost to Kiran Kumar G / Tanya Hemanth 2-15, 8-15; SM: Mithun Manjunath / Pruthvi K Roy / Shamanth Rao bt BM Rahul / Chiranjeevi Reddy / Rohith Mariswamy (Trump) 21-15.Bengaluru Lions beat KGF Wolves 4-3WS: Janani Ananthakumar bt Gloria Vinayakumar (Trump) 15-14, 15-9; MD: Sanjeeth S / Vaibhav S lost to Hemantha Gowda / Prakash Raj 7-15, 11-15; MS: Bhargav S (Trump) bt Naren Iyer 15-9, 15-9; MXD: Nithin H / Janani Ananthakumar bt Suhas V / Gloria Vinayakumar 15-8, 15-14; SM: Vaibhav S / Nithin H / Sanjeeth S lost to Hemantha Gowda / Prakash Raj / Suhas V 15-21.
--IANSavn/inj

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