Brings you the latest news from 74th Senior National Badminton 
As we get closer to the final dayof the 74th senior National badminton at the KNCB Indoor Stadium it is very clear that the Older has decided to stay and they did prove they are still the best .It was quiet evident from the semifinal line up of singles as well as doubles The old order returned to prominence with former National champions Chetan Anand and Anup Sridhar of Petroleum reaching the men’s final in the here on Saturday.
Chetan, who is fresh from winning the Indian Grand Prix in Lucknow last month, gave enough evidence of his class to quell the challenge of last year’s champion Arvind. The way to the final was not smooth as Chetan, seeded 14th in the tournament, found his form fluctuating and lost the second game to stretch the match to the decider. Chetan won 21-19,4-21,21-16.
Anup, a three-time winner, scripted a brilliant comeback to down a fighting P. Kashyap, also of Petroleum, in the other semifinal. Sridhar overcame fourth seed P. Kashyap 19-21, 21-19, 21-16.Sridher who was plagued with injuries thru out the year has a good chance to win the title which he had won two years back.
The women’s section saw the dominance of the top two seeds with defending champion Sayali Gokhale and second-seeded Trupti Murgunde making it to the title round. Sayali beat Petroleum’s Gayatri Vartak, while Trupti got the better of her Petroleum colleague Aditi Mutatkar, who retired in the second game with injury. Trupti took another step closer to winning her maiden title as she got past Aditi, who retired after injuring her knee with the second game score reading 14-3 in favour of the former.
Jwala Gutta of Petroleum brightened her chances of a double crown reaching the finals of the women’s doubles (with Ashwini Ponnappa) and mixed doubles partnering V. Diju.
The Most significant change of this years nationals is the good performance of Li Ning sponsored player at the time when the Li Ning Product are being launched in India .
The results (semifinals):
Men’s singles: Anup Sridhar (PSPB) bt P. Kashyap (PSPB) 19-21, 21-19, 21-16; B. Chetan Anand (PSPB)
bt Arvind Bhat (PSPB) 21-19, 4-21, 21-16.
Men’s doubles: Akshay Dewalkar & Jishnu Sanyal (AI) bt Arun Vishnu (Ker) & K. Tarun (AP) 21-17, 22-20; Rupesh Kumar (PSPB) & Sanave Thomas (Ker) bt B. Sai Praneeth (AP) & Pranav Chopra (AI) 21-13, 23-21.
Women’s singles: Sayali Gokhale (AI) bt Gayatri Vartak (PSPB) 21-19, 24-22; Trupti Murgunde (PSPB) bt Aditi Mutatkar (PSPB) 21-19, 14-3 retd.
Women’s doubles: Ashwini Ponappa (Kar) & Jwala Gutta (PSPB) bt N. Sikki Reddy (AP) & P.C. Thulasi (Ker) 21-9, 21-11; Aparna Balan & Shruti Kurien (PSPB) bt Anita Ohlan & Dhanya Nair (Rly) 21-5, 21-18.
Mixed doubles: V. Diju & Jwala Gutta (PSPB) bt Akshay Dewalkar (AI) & Pradnya Gadre (Mah) 21-8, 21-13; Arun Vishnu (Ker) & Aparna Balan (PSPB) bt Pranav Chopra (AI) & Prajakta Sawant (Mah) 21-19, 21-16.
