PUNE: Sarunrak Vitidsarn (Thailand) and Seeded Muhammad Halim Sidiq (Indonesia) grabbed glory and in the bargain dashed Indian hopes in the India Junior International Grand Prix 2022, played in memory of the Late Sushant Chipalkatti, in Pune on Sunday.
Thailand's No. 9 seed Sarunrak warded off the challenge of No. 3 Unnati Hooda 23-25, 21-17, 21-10, while No. 7 Sidiq captured the men's singles crown running down the dream run of unseeded local lad Darshan Pujari 21-13, 21-13 in 29 minutes. Both matches were a contrast, the men's being the shortest contested in terms of time, while the women's was the longest of all finals lasting 50 minutes.
Darshan Pujari, who entered the final without giving up a single game, most definitely did not own the day. When pitted against the Indonesian, who was constantly attacking, Darshan was defeated by his opponent's obvious winners and occasionally fell victim to his own numerous unforced errors.
Darshan took the lead early in the first game. He made it 5-3 and set up a 3-1 lead. Darshan, who trailed 5-8, lost the edge thanks to an Indonesian scoring run of five points. Before the Indonesian switched sides with a 6-point advantage, Darshan scored another point (6-8). Muhammad increased his lead to 17-7 after two additional spurts of three points each; Darshan was unable to close the gap. The pattern continued in the second as the 18-year-old Darshan found it difficult to come up and gave up after winning the opening point but losing the next eight to behind 1-8.
15-year-old Sarunrak exhibits family class. Sarunrak Vitidsarn, the ninth-seeded player from Thailand, defeated the third-seeded Unnati Hooda from India by scores of 23-25, 21-17, and 21-10 to win the women's competition. After winning the Bulgaria Junior International in July, she competed in her third international singles final and earned her second victory. She placed second in the Turkey Junior International as well.
The Thai girl, who is the younger sister of Kunlavut Vitidsarn (2017–2019), a three-time World Junior Champion, won the match after bouncing back from a loss in the first game in which she gave up seven game points. In spite of having a 20-17 advantage over her Indian opponent Unnati, Sarunrak was unable to extend her lead at 21-20, 22-21, and 23-22 when Unnati put up a resolute battle. Unnati is ranked 75th in the world.
With an overhead crosscourt placement, Unnati, a champion at the Odisha Open in January, then tied the score at 23 all before pushing herself and winning by one. However, after a 50-minute struggle on the court, the Thai player, who was ranked No. 125 in the world, made sure she grabbed charge of the next two games, avoided making mistakes like she had in the first, and finished off the title.
This was the second higher seeded player that the Thai woman had beaten in two days; the first was No. 1 Anupama Upadhaya in the semifinals, and the second was No. 3 Unnati on Sunday.
Mixed doubles from Ridhi pockets The lone participant from the day that came back to the court for a second final was Ridhi Kaur Toor. She made sure that she won the mixed doubles championship despite losing the women's doubles match.
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