India had a successful campaign at the Hellas Open 2018 badminton tournament in Greece as three doubles pairs from the country won titles in their respective categories. The Hellas Open is an International Series-level tournament, sitting below the more prestigious World Tour events in the Badminton World Federation’s tournament hierarchy.
The 21-year-old Arjun MR bagged a double, winning the mixed and men’s doubles titles with his partners Maneesha K and Shlok Ramchandran. Arjun and Maneesha got the finals day rolling for India by beating Poland’s Pawel Pietryja and Agnieszka Wojtkowska 21-15, 21-14 in the mixed doubles final.
Later in the day, Arjun combined with long-time partner Shlok to win the men’s doubles title, beating Poland’s Adrian Dziolko and Michal Rogalski 21-13, 21-11. Arjun and Shlok, ranked 42nd in the world, were the top seeds in men’s doubles.
While Arjun has been playing with Shlok for a while, he got together with Maneesha only last month. The Hyderabad Open in September was their first tournament together, in which they reached the quarter-finals.
Arjun and Maneesha were not the only newly formed Indian pair to win a title in Greece. Rutaparna Panda and Arathi Sara Sunil, who started playing together only in May this year, won the women’s doubles title in Chania.
After first pairing up for the two selection tournaments for the Asian Games, winning one of them and reaching the semi-finals of the other, Rutaparna and Arathi won their first international title together after beating France’s Vimala Heriau and Margot Lambert 21-19, 21-12 in 50 minutes on Sunday.
The two were paired together after Rutaparna’s regular partner, Mithula UK, sustained a long-term injury earlier this year. Rutaparna and Mithula are the reigning junior national champions, but with the former doing so well with Arathi, it will be interesting to see what happens once Mithula returns to full fitness.
While India’s doubles pair did well in this tournament, none of the country’s singles shuttlers could get past the quarter-finals.
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