Cuttack: The sensational duo of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila clinched the Mixed Doubles title here at the Odisha Masters 2023 being held at JN Indoor Stadium.
In the first Final of the day, Indian duo Tanisha Crasto-Dhruv Kapila were up against Singapore’s Hee Yong Kai Terry and Tan Wei Han Jessica. In the first game, the Indian pair started aggressively but the pair from Singapore fought back hard to keep the scores tied.
At the interval, Hee Yong Kai Terry and Tan Wei Han Jessica took a 11-9 lead. With Dhruv and Tanisha finding their rhythm back, they brought the game to 16-16 before the pair from Singapore quickly took the lead putting the Indians on the backfoot and closed the first game 21-17. In the second game, both teams were involved in long rallies as the Indian duo took 11-9 lead at the interval. Tanisha-Dhruv marched ahead to a 15-11 lead before the won the second game 21-19 and taking the match into the decider.
In the decider, the Indian pair continued their momentum and started putting pressure on the pair from Singapore. But the pair from Singapore fought their way back and took a 11-9 lead at the interval. After the change of sides, the Indian pair started dominating before winning the game 23-21 and clinching the Mixed Doubles title.
Meanwhile, in the Women’s Double final, the Indian duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto went down to Indonesian pair of Meilysa Trias Puspitasari and Rachel Allessya Rose by 21-14 and 21-17.
In the first game, both teams put their best foot forward with Tanisha dominating at the net and Ashwini showing her experience. The Indonesian pair put up a strong fight and at the interval, the score was 11-8 in favour of Indonesia. After the change of sides, the pair from Indonesia took a 19-15 lead and took the first game 21-14.
In the second game, the Indian duo started feeling the pressure following which they gave away points easily to the pair from Indonesia. Meilysa Trias Puspitasari and Rachel Allessya Rose took a 6-1 lead and put the Indian pair on backfoot. But the Indian pair found their rhythm back and started putting pressure on the Indonesian pair. At the interval, the score was 11-8 in favour of Indonesia. The pair from Indonesia then won the second game 21-17 to lift the title.
In the Men’s Singles Final match, Satish Kumar Karunakaran defeated Ayush Shetty 21-18, 19-21 and 21-14 to win the title. Coming into this tournament, Sathish had a good season with Men’s Singles title wins at India International and runner-up finish at Maldives International.
In the Men’s Double Final, Lin Bing-Wei and Su Ching Heng of Chinese Taipei beat Krishna Prasad Garaga and Sai Pratheek K 22-20, 18-21 and 21-17. Meanwhile, in Women’s Single Final, former World No 1 Nozomi Okuhara staged an epic comeback and beat Hong Kong China’s Lo Sin Yan Happy to lift the title with a score of 21-7, 21-23 and 22-20.
(IANS)
