Double delight for Gayatri Gopichand at Senior Ranking tourney

National badminton coach Pullela Gopichand's daughter Gayatri put up a fine show at the Yonex-Sunrise All India Senior Ranking tournament, finishing with two titles.

Gayatri, who had upset the fourth seed Aakarshi Kashyap this week, announced her arrival in the senior category with a title in women's singles as well as women's doubles.

Meanwhile, sixth seed Lakshya Sen staved off a stiff resistance from second seed Rahul Yadav Chittaboina to triumph in men's singles.

In singles, the 16-year-old Gayatri, who was seeded 13th, needed just 37 minutes to see off Tanvi Lad 21-19 21-16 to lay her hands on her first Senior Ranking Tournament trophy.

She later teamed up with Rutaparna Panda and defeated the fourth seeds and reigning national champions Shikha Gautam and Ashwini Bhat K, 19-21 21-14 21-10.

The 17-year-old Sen, who reached the China Masters final in March, was put to a stern test by Chittaboina, who edged the Prakash Padukone protege 25-23 in the first game in an absorbing men's ..