Kharkiv International 2017: Indians show at Ukraine

In the Kharkiv International 2017, Ukraine, Indian shuttlers produced excellent results giving the least chances to other players to compete in the finals. In an epic Indian show, doubles category play a major role.

The elder brother of India’s top shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, Nandagopal Kidambi clinched two golds in the mixed doubles and men’s doubles finishing on a high at the $20, 000 FZ Forza Kharkiv International 2017 held at Kharkiv, Ukraine on Sunday.

Top seeded Nandagopal Kidambi and Mahima Aggarwal of India defeated second seeds Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh of India by 21-14, 21-15 in just 30-minute battle of finals of mixed doubles, clinching gold and silver respectively at Sports Hall Lokomotiv, Ukraine. In the third position stands Vighnesh Devlekar and Harika Veldurthi of India.

In the men’s doubles finals, Kidambi Nandagopal and Francis Alwin defeated Rohan Kapoor and Kona Tarun by 18-21, 24-22, 21-18 in the 55-minute encounter. Utkarsh Arora and Swarnaraj Bora stands in the third position with bronze.

In the women’s doubles section, the Indian duo of Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram were the top seeds but their run was halted in the quarter-finals by the unseeded Ukrainian combine of Maria Ulitina and Natalya Voytsekh, 21-17, 19-21, 21-11.

In the women’s singles Sri Krishna Kudaravalli lost to Natalya Voetsek by 18-21, 21-16, 23-21 clinching silver. In the Men’s singles quarter-finals, the 19 year old Mithun Manjunath won bronze losing against Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong by 20-22, 21-9, 21-6.