Top seed Arvind Bhat and seasoned campaigner B R Meenakshi, both 29 and from Bangalore, clinched the men's and women's singles titles in the Rs five-lakh prize money Tata Open All India Badminton Tournament in Mumbai on Thursday.
India number three Bhat, of Bharat Petroleum, outclassed his experienced and unseeded Railways rival Sachin Ratti 21-19, 21-9 in the 36-minute men's final to pocket the winner's prize money of Rs 75,000.
Bhat was far too superior to Ratti, a former junior national champion, and ran away with the match after a closely fought opener.
Earlier, unseeded Meenakshi of Indian Oil defeated her third seeded rival 21-12, 25-23 in the women's final to become richer by Rs 50,000.
Meenakshi won the opening game in just 12 minutes with a flurry of drop-shot winners and led 9-2 before her younger rival fought back.
The 20-year-old Pune-based rival Neha, a junior international, took advantage of Meenakshi's lapse in concentration with some attacking play to draw level at 12 and then surged to the lead for the first time in the game.
She led Meenakshi, conqueror of fourth seed Dhanya Nair (Railways) in the semis, 16-13 and 19-16 and held three game points to take the match into the deciding third game only to squander all of them.
Neha then saved three match-points before she flicked her back hand long on the fourth to lose the game in 23 minutes and the match to her seasoned opponent in 35. It was also Meenakshi's second straight win over her rival this year.
