Harinder wins men's singles title in PB state badminton

Jalandhar, Nov 12 (UNI) Top seeded Harinder Singh of Patiala won men's xingles title at the Narendra Mohan Senior Punjab State Badminton Championship here this evening.

Harinder defeated Mohammad Saleem of PSEB in well fought three game final played in Raizada Hansraj Stadium Badminton Hall here.

Harinder and Saleem both exhibited combination of tricky serves, smash shots and spectacular returns in a protracted title clash.

Facing stiff resistance from the spirited rival, Harinder had to work hard to win prolonged first game by 27-25.

In the second game, Saleem took full advantage of his serves and over powered Harinder to win the game by 21-16. In the decider third game Harinder re-emerged to win by 21-15.

This was Harinder's second title in the tournament. Earlier, he had won Mixed Double title with Navita Thakur here yesterday.

However, in the men's doubles final Harinder and his partner Sahil Arora had to taste bitter defeat in the hands of Pranav Chopra and Rajkumar. Pranav and Rajkumar won the Men's Double title after conceding the first game to the rival pair by 16-21. However, in the next two games Pranav and Rajkumar fought well to win title by 21-19 and 25-23.

In the semi final in this category earlier in the day, Pranav and Rajkumar up set top seeded pair of former international Vijaydeep and Navdeep by 15-21,21-16 and 24-22.

Meanwhile, veteran shuttler Ram Lakhan also won two titles in the Championship.

Ram Lakhan won the men's singles title in the above 35 year category defeating Ranjit Singh 21-18, 21-16 and won the finals of of 40-plus Men's Doubles category with Nirmaljit. The duo defeated Rajinder and Prem Bharati 21-17, 21-19.

In the 45-plus men's singles, Ramesh Dhaul won defeated Varinder Sharma 21-08, 13-21 and 21-18. Rajinder and Prem Bharati paired up to win the Mens(45-plus) Doubles title defeating Rakesh and K L Prabhakar 14-21, 21-12 and 21-13.

Around 100 shuttlers participated in the three day tourney which concluded here tonight.

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