Chetan Anand bagged his 4th National title at the recently concluded Senior Indian Nationals which were held in the north-eastern city of Guwahati, whilst it was a maiden title triumph for Trupti Murgunde, whose win capped off a highly successful year which included an international title as well.

By Gaurav Gupta, Badzine Correspondent. Photos (archives) : Badmintonphoto

Neither Chetan (photo) and Trupti representing the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) was the top pick for the title at the start of the tournament win but both scripted their title conquests with their trademark court craft distinctive to their styles of play.

Chetan Anand overcame the challenge of a resurgent Anup Sridhar in a closely-contested final match. After having lost the first game 16-21, Chetan had to dig deep to claim the second with a close margin of 21-19. Clearly the hard work put in by Chetan in the 2nd game paid off as he completely dominated the rubber game, clinching the match and the Vikas Topiwala Challenge Cup winning 21-10 in the third.

Having missed out the previous year’s national his 4th title conquest puts this this soft spoken Hyderabadi lad in esteemed company as he now stands equal in terms of his national titles with the current Indian chief coach P. Gopichand.   

Trupti Murgunde came into the tourney having won the most recently conducted domestic competition at Bangalore in December but her performance in the hour-long 2nd round match against youngster P V Sindhu didn’t convince many  that she would be crowned champion at the end of the week. After having gotten past another title favourite Aditi Mutatkar in the semi’s (Mutatkar retired midway through the 2nd game) her finals match proved to be an anti-climax.

Playing against last year’s champion Sayali Gokhale, Trupti stamped her dominance right from the start and did not relent till she had her hands on the Olympian Badminton Challenge Cup for the first time, winning the final quite comfortably 21-17, 21-7.

Jwala Gutta was crowned champion twice on finals day. Along with partner V Diju she claimed her 4th mixed doubles championship as they beat Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan of Kerala 21-12, 21-7 in a straight-game trashing.

Jwala then teamed with her young women’s doubles partner Ashwini Ponnappa winning her record 9th women’s doubles crown more than yesteryear champs Madhumita Bisht and Manjusha Pawangadkar. Jwala and Ashwini were triumphant over the pair of Jwala’s former partner Shruthi Kurien and Aparna Balan winning the final match 21-15, 22-20.

It was a 6th consecutive national title for the unbeatable top pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas whose win once again emphasizes the fact that they as a class apart the rest of the men’s doubles players in the Indian circuit. Their 21-15, 21-18 win over Dewalkar and Sanyal was a foregone conclusion as they kept the Calcutta Badminton Cup firmly locked in their possession.

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