India international Sourabh Verma sent a message to the selectors by winning the All India Senior Ranking Tournament in Bengaluru on Sunday.

The 25-year-old has been dogged by injuries in the last few months, which has seen him miss quite a few international tournaments. As a result, his world ranking, which used to consistently be in the top 30, has dropped to 71.

Since Verma had not played on the national circuit too for a while, he had to come through the qualifiers in the Bengaluru. This is one of the two tournaments that has been marked by the Badminton Association of India as a selection event for the Asian Games in August.

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Verma played four rounds of qualification and six matches in the main draw on his way to the title. On the way, he beat three seeded players, including top seed Pratul Joshi in the final, and former junior world No 1 Lakshya Sen.

In Sunday’s final, Verma beat Joshi, India’s highest-ranked player on the national circuit, after losing the first game. The final score read 17-21, 21-14, 21-18, with Verma coming out on top after an hour and 12 minutes.

The women’s singles title was won by second seed Sai Uttejitha Rao, who is No 3 in the All-India rankings. Rao also needed three games to get past former national champion Rituparna Das, who is also on a comeback trail after an injury layoff. Rao won 21-15, 7-21, 21-15 after 53 minutes of play.

Earlier, the mixed doubles final was also a three-game affair, with Dhruv Kapila and Meghana J coming back from a game down to beat Arun George and Arathi Sara Sunil 19-21, 21-12, 21-9. Arathi, however, put the defeat behind her quickly and went on to win the women’s doubles title along with her new partner Rutaparna Panda.

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Arathi and Rutaparna, playing in their first tournament together, beat Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker in straight games 21-10, 21-12. Rutaparna’s regular doubles partner Mithula UK is injured but given how she and Arathi have clicked, it will be interesting to see what she does when Mithula returns to full fitness.

Dhruv Kapila then had the chance to add another trophy to his cabinet as he took part in the men’s doubles final along with partner Krishna Prasad Garaga. However, the two youngsters lost to Arjun MR and Shlok Ramchandran, who had represented India at the Thomas Cup recently, in straight games 21-14, 21-16.

There is another senior ranking tournament in Hyderabad next week, which also serves as a selection trial for the Asian Games. All the players who took part in Sunday’s finals will also be playing there.