Vadodara, January 8: PSPB will take on West Bengal in Youth Boys final while it will be Tamil Nadu versus Airports Authority of India in the Youth Girls final of the 11Even Sports 78th Junior and Youth National Championships.

In Junior Boys final, Maharashtra A will take on PSPBA and Tamil Nadu Junior Girls will take on West Bengal in their finals which will be played later in the evening at the SAMA Indoor Complex here today.

In Youth Boys’ first semifinal PSPB, led by Manav Thakkar and Abhishek Yadav, completed a 3-0 rout against Delhi. Except for Himanshu Jindal, who put up some resistance, both Parth Virmani and Nishad Shad were only up to scratch against Manav and Abhishek and it reflected in their game scores. For West Bengal, who struggled past Gujarat 3-2, Anirban Ghosh’s win over Harsh Sachanandani and Manu Shah mattered in the end since Arjun Ghosh lost both his singles with their third player Ronit Bhanja accounting for Ishaan Hingorani.

The semifinal between AAI and Kerala was a foregone conclusion but one expected the girls from down south to show the same grit which they did against top-seed North Bengal who were sent packing in the quarterfinals. Archana-Ayhika-Sreeja combine was too good for the Kerala girls but Maria Rony managed to take two games off Ayhika Mukherjee, the only aspect of their match, worthy of praise. Tamil Nadu, helped by Amrutha Pushpak’s two singles vicotry, went past West Bengal 3-1 in the second semifinal.  

What proved crucial in the Maharashtra A and West Bengal Junior Boys semifinal was the doubles win which the former notched up with Shaurya Pednekar sharing the most burden as he combined with Shubham Ambre to put the team in 2-1 lead. Unfortunately for West Bengal Jeet Chandra was the lone fighter, winning both his singles but his efforts came to a naught in the doubles as Soham Bahattacharya and he could not match the guile of the Maharashtra pair. Shaurya, who lost his opening singles in straight games, later made up with his reverse singles triumph over Soham to pass the muster.

The strong PSPBA in the company of Manav Thakkar and Anukram Jain flourished despite the academy boys were caught on the wrong foot when Anukram lost his opening singles to Manush Shah of Gujarat. Manav won both his singles and the doubles with his partner to roll over Gujarat 3-1.

Both Selenadeepthi Selvakumar and Yashini Sivashankar proved too difficult for their Telangana opponents as Tamil Nadu’s Junior Girls made it a one-sided affair in the semifinals with a 3-0 verdict. This was, despite the pair of Naina and V.Laasya putting up a good fight in the doubles which they lost 10-12, 11-5, 7-11, 11-9, 7-11. Maybe, a win here would have stretched the TN girls a bit but could not have kept them away from entering the final.

West Bengal girls, on the other hand, avenged their boys’ loss to Maharashtra with a fluent 3-1 victory. Except for the doubles win, the Maharashtra girls, Manushree Patil and Shruti Amrute, were found wanting against the duo of Prapti Sen and Moumuta Datta.     

Results (Team Events):

Junior Boys: Semifinals: Maharashtra A bt West Bengal 3-2, PSPBA bt Gujarat 3-1; Quarterfinals: West Bengal bt Karnataka 3-0, Maharashtra A bt Tamil Nadu 3-0, Gujarat bt Delhi 3-0, PSPBA bt Mizoram 3-0.

Junior Girls: Semifinals: Tamil Nadu bt Telangana 3-0, West Bengal bt Maharashtra A 3-1; Quarterfinals: Telangana bt Andhra 3-1, Tamil Nadu bt Hryana 3-0, West Bengal bt Karnataka 3-0, Maharashtra A bt Rajasthan 3-0.

Youth Boys: Semifinals: PSPB bt Delhi 3-0, West Bengal bt Gujarat 3-2; Quarterfinals: Delhi bt Rajasthan 3-0, PSPB bt Mizoram 3-0, Gujarat bt UP 3-2, West Bengal bt Maharashtra A 3-2.

Youth Girls: Semifinals: AAI bt Kerala 3-0, Tamil Nadu bt West Bengal 3-1; Quarterfinals: Kerala bt North Bengal 3-2, AAI bt Telangana 3-0, Tamil Nadu bt Maharashtra A 3-2, West Bengal bt Maharashtra B 3-0.