Shuttlers Kartik, Malvika impress in Senior Nationals

Bareilly  : Teenagers Kartik Jindal and Malvika Bansod sizzled with impressive performances in the ongoing Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta Memorial All India Senior Ranking badminton tournament here on Friday.

The 19-year-old Jindal from Haryana eased into the men's singles final with a 21-9, 21-6 victory over Delhi's Aakash Yadav while Malvika, the 17-year-old sensation from Nagpur, fought her way into the women's singles semi-final by recording a 21-18, 21-17 win over Air India's 18-year-old Bhavya Rishi.

Another Nagpur girl, Vaishnavi Bhale made it to the women's singles final overcoming Chhatisgarh teen Aakarshi Kashyap 21-14, 10-21, 21-16. The seventh seeded Vaishnavi, 22, had to draw upon all her experience to down the 17-year-old Aakarshi, who had earlier stunned third seed Rasika Raje 11-21, 21-16, 21-16 in the quarterfinal.

Vaishnavi's run to the final has not been easy as she was stretched in the quarters as well by 15th seed Kanika Kanwal of Railways before winning13-21, 21-16, 21-13.

Jindal too had to toil hard to enter the last four stage upstaging 11th seed Vijetha NVS from Telangana 21-23, 21-16, 21-15.

Top seed Pratul Joshi of Madhya Pradesh quelled the challenge of Delhi's Swamaraj Bora 24-22, 21-19 while West Bengal's 19-year-old Arintap Dasgupta downed Railways' Neeraj Vashisth 21-12, 21-10 in other men's singles quarterfinal clashes of the day.

The finals of the tournament, which has a prize money of Rs 5 lakh, will be held on Saturday.