Unnati Hooda and Kiran George registered victories to clinch the women’s and men’s singles title respectively in the Odisha Open Super 100 badminton tournament in Bhubaneshwar on Sunday.
Giant killer Hooda defeated Smit Toshniwal 21-18, 21-11 in just 35 minutes in the women’s singles final while Kiran got the better of Priyanshu Rajawat 21-15, 14-21, 21-18 in 58 minutes in the men’s category to end the three-event Indian leg in style.
Hooda, who was playing her second successive final on the senior national tour, was a big jittery at the start and conceded a sizable lead to Toshniwal in the opening game. But once the 14-year-old found her nerves, she began pushing her opponent to play longer rallies and slowly but surely clawed her way back.
She also employed the half smashes quite effectively to score points to pocket the opening game after taking the lead for the first time at 18-17. Hooda was the dominant player through-out the second game as she raced to a 17-4 lead. The youngster was guilty of dropping easy points from there on but the result was a foregone conclusion by then.
Later, Kiran had to dig deep into his physical and mental reserves to beat Rajawat in a summit clash that swung both ways till the very end.
Kiran was first off the mark opening up a 9-5 lead in the opening game but Rajawat fought back to level the scores at 12-12. But the youngster could not maintain the tempo and the eventual champion nine of the next 12 points to pocket the game.
Rajawat had to play catch up at the start of the second game as well but he clinched eight straight points from 6-8 to open up a sizable lead and never looked back.
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