As things stand they have no long-term plans to continue as a pair, but in the here and now, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Krasto enjoyed another successful week, defending the women’s doubles title at the Guwahati Masters Super 100 on Sunday. Adding a second title for the hosts today, third seed Satish Kumar Karunakaran in the men’s singles and 17-year-old Anmol Kharb finished runners-up in the women’s singles in what was his maiden World Tour final.
Ashwini and Tanisha, the only defending champions to retain the title, ended a week without playing a single match by defeating China’s Li Hua Zhou and Wang Zi Meng in straight sets 21-18, 21-12 in 43 minutes. The pair qualified for Paris on the back of a good home run last year, but had a forgettable outing at the Olympics. But as the unique veteran-young combination continues to play out, Tanisha says she will honor her commitment to ‘Ashwini Didi’. For Ashwini, at the backend of his career, it is a question of playing for a long time as long as he can maintain good form on tour.
“I definitely needed a break after Paris,” Ashwini told The Indian Express last week when he reached the semi-finals at the Syed Modi International in Lucknow. “As long as I’ve played, it definitely takes a toll at times. But the good thing is, Tanisha is there for me as a friend. As long as she’s there, and as long as I’m fit enough to play… I think it’s also important that we play at a certain high level, if that goes down it will be very unfair on Tanisha, especially because she’s playing so well. Mixed doubles with Dhruv (Kapila) has a long way to go, and I think they can do really well.
In the men’s singles final, Satish Kumar defeated China’s Zhu Xuan Chen 21-17, 21-14. The 23-year-old won the Odisha Masters Super 100 crown last year, his second title at this level on the world tour. Interestingly, in an event with a large number of entries, Satish Kumar navigated the entire draw by facing foreign opponents: Wang Zijun (China), Sholeh Adil (Malaysia), Saran Jamsri (Thailand), Wang Zheng Jing (China). That sequence, before defeating Zhu in a title match.
In the third final, the Indian, a rising talent who is poised to break into the top 80 of the world rankings, Anmol took the lead but could not convert it into a win as she lost 14-21 to China’s Cai Yan Yan. , 21–13, 21–19. It is still the best result on the international stage for the teenager whose breakthrough season started with her impressive outing at the Badminton Asia Team Championships.