Shyam Prasad tames Govind
June 12, 2018, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram
Reference: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-sports/shyam-prasad-tames-govind/article24140596.ece
Top seed Shyam Prasad (Thiruvananthapuram) and unseeded Aadya Variyath (Kozhikode) won the men’s and women’s singles titles respectively in the 34th TKV memorial all-Kerala senior ranking tournament here on Monday.
Shyam Prasad tamed Govind Krishna of Kozhikode 16-21, 21-13, 21-11 in the men’s final while Aadya beat third seed Mehreen Riza 21-12, 21-14 to win women’s title.
Govind Krishna, who upset second seed Aswin Paul in the semifinals, started confidently and opened up Shyam’s backcourt with his power game. Govind raced to an early lead in the first set as Shyam struggled to get into a rhythm.
After conceding the first set, Shyam, however, got into the groove quickly in the second set. He retrieved Govind’s smashes from the backcourt and induced mistakes from his opponent.
Govind committed far too many errors at the net to hand over the advantage to Shyam helping Shyam take the second set rather easily. In the decider the top seed didn’t allow Govind to play his natural game and forced his to be on the defensive. Shyam was quick to end the rallies against erratic Govind.
Aadya’s game was based on deception. She foxed her opponent Mehreen with delectable drops and nice placements at the backcourt.
Left handed Mehreen was repeatedly caught on the wrong foot by Aadya who mixed her shots pretty well. Aadya led from the start in both sets and had little trouble in maintaining it.
The result (all finals):
Men: Shyam Prasad (Tvm) bt Govind Krishna (Koz) 16-21, 21-13, 21-11.
Doubles: N.G. Balakrishnan (Koz) & K. Dilshad (Tsr) bt Shyam Prasad & Vishnu Rajendran (Tvm) 23-21, 21-8.
Women: Aadya Variyath (Koz) bt Mehreen Riza (Tvm) 21-12, 22-14.
Doubles; Sarah Alma Basil (Ekm) & Varsha Venkitesh (Pkd) w/o Mehreen Riza (Tvm) & Tressa Jolly (Knr).
Mixed doubles: Neeraj Rehman & Nafeesah Sara Siraj (Koz) bt Shivshankar (Tsr) & Adithya A. Binoy (Koz) 21-12, 16-21, 23-21.
