Badminton: Anand, Murgunde crowned National champions

Chetan Anand and Trupti Murgunde lifted the men's and women's title in the 74th Senior National Badminton Championship at Karmavir Nabin Chandra Bordoloi Indoor Complex in Guwahati on Sunday.

The men's doubles title was won by Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas while the pair of Ashwini Ponnapa and Jwala Gutta bagged the women's doubles.

This is Trupti's maiden title at the senior national level.

Fourteenth seed Anand played an attacking game before being down in the first set to overcome his 13th-seeded opponent Anup Sridhar 16-21, 21-19, 21-10.

Anand played to his expectation and thrilled the packed holiday crowd as he overcame his first set loss to win the thrilling contest.

In the women's singles final, the second seeded Trupti Murgunde created an upset as she played an attacking game and beat the No 1 Sayali Gokhale 21-17, 21-7.

There was another upset in the women's doubles final as, the seventh seeded Ashwini and Jwala stunned the No 1 seed Aparna Balan and Shruti Kurien 21-15, 21-20.

The second-seeded Rupesh combined with Sanave to beat the third seed pairing of Akshay Dewalkar and Jishnu Sanyal 21-15, 21-18 in the men's doubles final.

There was another upset in the mixed doubles final as the No 3 three seed V Diju and Jwala Gutta beat the top seed A Vishnu and Appana Blan 21-12, 21-7.