Sudha survives opening jitters vs Smriti in Junior Masters thriller

11 December,2011 07:14 AM IST |   |  Sundari Iyer

Top seed Sudha Kalyani of Andhra Pradesh survived a scare in the girls' U-17 first round league match of the Gautam Thakkar Memorial Junior Masters badminton tournament at Bombay Gymkhana on Saturday.


Top seed Sudha Kalyani of Andhra Pradesh survived a scare in the girls' U-17 first round league match of the Gautam Thakkar Memorial Junior Masters badminton tournament at Bombay Gymkhana on Saturday.


Sudha Kalyani during Saturday's girls' U-17u00a0 match at Bombay Gymkhana.
Pic/Suresh KK


Sudha overcame Smriti Nagarkoti of Uttarakhand 21-12, 15-21, 21-12 in the R10 lakh prize money tournament.
Sudha won the first game 21-12, but Smriti came backu00a0 fighting through long rallies and stunning cross court shots.

Both fought brutally for every point and went neck-to-neck till 15-15 before Smriti clinched the second game 21-15. However, Sudha had the last laugh as she closed out the match at 21-12.

"I wasn't expecting such a tough first round here. But my opponent was really good. I took the game lightly and had to pay for it," said Sudha, an FYJC student of Krishnaveni College in AP.

In the boys' U-17 singles, eighth seed Shyam Prasad of Kerala stunned top seed Aditya Joshi of Air India
21-12, 21-10 in a second round league match. Second seed Harsheel Dani of Air India registered a 21-17, 21-14 win over Maharashtra's Kaushal Dharmamer.

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sports Sudha Kalyani Gautam Thakkar Memorial Junior