Sri Lanka’s Dinuka Karunaratre and Rane Saili from India are the 2013 Uganda International Badminton Open Championships winners of the men’s and women’s singles respectively.
The tournament that climaxed on Sunday at the MTN Arena, Lugogo, saw Dinuka, who is a brother of last year’s winner, Niluka, beat India’s Dey Subhankar 21-16, 21-17 in a game that lasted 34 minutes. Subhankar took the lead in the two games, but Dinuka’s good game reading and clever net play was enough to win him the title.
He described his victory as sweet, having beaten an Indian to the title.
To reach the final, Subhankar beat Italy’s Daniel Messersi, while Karunaratre humbled another Italian player, Giovanni Greco.
In the women’s final, Saili saw off Egypt’s Hosny Hadia 21-12, 21-12 in a one sided final. Hadia, Africa’s second best player said she faced a strong player, but she was happy to reach the final and get world ranking points.
The pair of Greco and Messersi got a consolation win in the men’s doubles after seeing off the Egyptian pair of El Sayad and Ahmed Kashkal 21-18, 21-18.
Africa’s best female player Gabriel Grace from Nigeria combined well with Aboobakar Shama of Mauritius to stop the Ugandan pair of Shamim Bangi and Margaret Nankabirwa in the women’s doubles final 21-13, 18-21, 21-12 in a game that kept the local home supporters on their toes.
After the game, Bangi, who also reached the semis of the women’s singles, said she was happy to reach the doubles final, even though she and Nankabirwa did not win it.
It was an all Egyptian final in the mixed doubles when El Sayad and Ashraf Nadine beat Hosny Nadia and Ahmed Kashkal 14-21, 21-15, 21-19.
The tournament sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) attracted players from Nigeria, Germany, Hungary, Scotland, Italy, India, Mauritius, Egypt, Kenya and hosts Uganda
Source: Global Times
