Major Ranking: Aparna, Meenakshi take doubles crown

Indore, Dec 28 (UNI) The Aparna Balan-B R Meenakshi pair today bagged the women's doubles title at the All India Senior Major Ranking Badminton Tournament here while Balan-Roopesh Kumar claimed the mixed doubles title.

Balan-Meenakshi beat V Ruth Misha-Soumya Padhye 21-16, 21-10 and Balan-Kumar pipped Deepti Priyadarshini-Jayan James 21-14, 21-12. In the men's singles category, the Petroleum Sports Control Board's Abhinn Shyam Gupta and second-seed P Kashyap from Andhra Pradesh secured final berths.

Gupta vanquished Andhra's R M V Gurusai Dutt 20-22, 21-11, 21-13 while Kashyap defeated Kerala's Thomas Kurien 21-14, 21-19.

In the women's category, top-seed Aditi Mutatkar from Maharashtra and second-seed Meenakshi representing the PSCB reached the final by getting the better of Railways' Dhanya Nair (21-15, 21-12) and Maharashtra's Sayali Gokhale (21-10, 15-21, 21-14) respectively.

In the men's doubles, S Thomas-Kumar and Jaseel P Ismail-Jose George secured final berths by beating Vineet Manuel-D Guru Prasad (21-11, 21-8) and T Dinesh-James (21-19, 21-13) respectively.

UNI AA-AC 2137