Pune, Sep 4: Indian shuttlers Unnati Hooda and Darshan Pujari signed off as second best after going down to their respective opponents in the women’s and men’s under-19 finals at India Junior International Grand Prix here on Sunday.
The 14-year-old Hooda, the youngest shuttler to win a BWF Super 100 tournament in Odisha this year, went down fighting 25-23 17-21 10-21 to Thailand’s Sarunrak Vitidsarn in the summit clash.
Darshan’s dream run in the tournament also came to an end after he lost 13-21 13-21 to Indonesia’s Muhammad Halim As Sidiq in men’s U-19 final at the Modern PDMBA Sports Complex.
Darshan went into the final without conceding a single game but he was done in by his rival’s clear winners and also his own unforced errors.
In the first game, Darshan opened up a 5-3 advantage but a burst of five points put the Indonesian in the lead and he soon managed to take a 11-6 advantage.
Two more bursts of three points each put Muhammed way ahead at 17-7, a gap which Darshan could not bridge.
In the second game, the 18-year-old Indian won the first point but then lost the next eight to trail 1-8 and found it hard to catch up thereafter.
In the women’s final, Unnati was guilty of squandering an opening game advantage as the No. 9 seed Sarunrak rallied to shock the No. 3 seed from India in a tense match.
Sarunrak, the youngster sister of three-time World Junior Champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn, lost the opening game after conceding as many as seven game points.
However in the next two games, the Thai girl, ranked No. 125 in the world, ensured she took control and made no mistake like she had made in the opener and claimed the title after a 50 minute battle.
Ridhi bags mixed doubles crow
India’s Ridhi Kaur Toor won the mixed doubles title alongside Divyam Arora after prevailing in an all-Indian final, making up for the women’s doubles crown which slipped through her fingers earlier in the day.
Ridhi and Divyam got past the stiff challenge of Prem Kumar Prabhu Raj Mohan and Kanishka Ganesan 21-17 14-21 21-15 in a 46 minutes encounter to lift the mixed trophy. (PTI)
