Badminton News: Indian women’s doubles pair Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto won the Nantes International Challenge title on Sunday. The duo defeated Chinese Taipei’s Hung En-Tzu and Lin Yu-Pei in back-to-back matches in the finals.

The Indian pair edged En-Tzu and Yu-Pei 21-15 21-14 in a match that lasted just 31 minutes.

Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha initially led 0-4 at the Salle Metropolitana de la Trocardaiare but fought back well to level the scores at 10-10 and eventually won the opener 21-15.

In the second match, the pair showed greater dominance. After breaking the tie at 3-3, Ashwini and Tanisha went on an incredible seven-game winning streak.

However, India suffered a setback in the mixed doubles final, where Tanisha and K. Sai Pratheek, who had gone through qualifying to reach the final, lost to Danish duo Mads Vestergaard and Christine Busch 21-14, 14-21, 17-21 in 51 minutes.

International Challenge tournaments are not part of the BWF World Tour series but are still contested for ranking points.

“Winning hasn’t been on my CV for a long time, so it’s really great. Tanisha and I have been playing since January, so it’s great to win,” Ashwini said.

Partnering with Tanisha after a long relationship with Sikki Devi, Ashwini Ponnappa said: “Sikki and I played for a long time but we kind of stagnated. We couldn’t get past a certain set of results,” said he declared.

“So it’s good for both of us to split up. He (Sikki) did well in mixed doubles and I’m trying to do something new because I’m not young anymore. So I wanted to play with younger players and Tanisha fits the bill,” Ashwini added. .

Tags: Ashwini Ponnappa, Nantes International Challenge 2023