Badminton National Championships: Chirag, Anmol bag men’s and women’s singles title, respectively

It has been a productive three months for Chirag Sen of Indian Railways, beating higher-ranked players in International tournaments, starting with the Infosys International Challenge in Bengaluru where he reached the semifinals.

It was fitting that he ended the season on a high, winning the men’s singles title of the 85th Senior National badminton championships here on Sunday, with a 21-14, 13-21, 21-9 victory over Telangana’s M. Tharun, the fourth seed, in the men’s singles final.

Anmol Kharb of Haryana couldn’t have had it any easier. A thigh strain to her opponent and good friend Tanvi Sharma of Punjab midway in the match enabled the former to script a 15-21, 21-17, 16-8 (retd.) win in the women’s singles summit clash. Tanvi retired in the third game with Anmol leading 16-8.

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Tanvi was the better player in the first game. She was aggressive from the backcourt and hardly gave her opponent any width to unleash her smashes. Tanvi took a 15-10 lead in a close second game and looked like she was on course. But at 17-14, while rushing from the backcourt to the front to retrieve a drop, Tanvi seemed to have strained her right thigh. She took a medical time-out and was not the same player when play resumed. She went through the motions in the second, and in the third, she quit.

“I am happy to win the title at 16 years of age and become one of the youngest women players to win the Senior Nationals. I am thrilled as my idol Saina Nehwal was 16 years old when she won the title in 2006-07,” Anmol said.

The Tharun-Chirag match, as expected, went down to the wire. In the deciding third game, Chirag played like a man possessed, attacking at every opportunity. At one stage, he attacked all the serves of Tharun. When Chirag took a 15-9 lead, the contest was as good as over.

“I have been struggling in singles for a while. First, I gained confidence at the Infosys Challenge held in my Academy (Prakash Padukone BA), beating some good players. After being in the circuit for four years, I hadn’t played in any singles final. I am very happy now. The win over Kartikey Gulshan Kumar, the third seed, in the second round here, gave me the confidence that I can pull off tough matches,” said Chirag.