It was Sara Devi´s hat-trick while Ratnajit also won the mixed doubles title along with another sister Nangsal Devi as the three siblings stole the show in the final day of the tournament held at the APF Headquarters, Halchowk. [break]
To add icing to the cake, Nangsal Devi also won the women´s doubles title along with Pooja Shrestha, who was beaten in the final of women´s singles by Sara Devi.
Sara Devi looked more nervous during her brother´s match than her own because he had a hard fought victory over Nepal´s number one and national champion Bikash Shrestha in the men´s singles.
“I was more tensed during his match because he had a close call but my match was under control,” said the lieutenant of Nepal Army, who thrashed defending champion Shrestha 21-12, 21-3 in straight sets.
Sara Devi, who was sidelined by a knee injury for about a year, had also defeated Shrestha during the National Ranking Badminton some months ago for a successful comeback.
“I am more happy because it was Ratnajit´s first title in APF badminton,” added Sara Devi, 26, who has been playing badminton for the last ten years.
She joined Nepal Army as a second lieutenant through free competition some five years ago. Twenty-two years old Nangsal Devi plays for Armed Police Force (APF) while their brother Ratnajit joined the APF about one and a half years ago.
Ratnajit had to face a tough challenge from Bikash Shrestha of Nepal Police Club (NPC) to clinch the three-set thriller 22-20, 17-21, 23-21.
Nineteen-year-old Tamang took control of the game with a 4-0 lead but the much experienced Shrestha, 24, made a strong comeback to tie the score at 12-12. Tamang hit four smashes in the first set while Shrestha played good placings to tie the first set at 20-20 again.
Tamang finally succeeded to win the first set 22-21.
Shrestha made a good comeback in the second set to take a 5-1 lead. Both players made good moves during the second set but Tamang trailed throughout the set as Shrestha hit five smashes to two of Tamang. Finally Shrestha made it 21-17 to win the set.
The deciding set was more exciting as Tamang took a 5-1 lead but Shrestha leveled the game at 12-12. Shrestha was then in command and looked all set to win the game as he made it 20-17, requiring just one point for victory. However, Tamang held his nerves to fight back and tie the match at 20-20 and then finally went on to win the set 23-21.
In other matches, Dipesh Dhami of APF clinched the title of U-17 men´s singles while his club mate Sikshya Shrestha won the title of U-17 women´s singles.
Other winners were the pair of Rajendra Man Shrestha and Jung Bahadur Chand of NPC in veteran´s doubles (above 45), the pair of Deepak Bohara and Suresh Chanrda Shrestha in the veteran´s doubles (above 55) and the pair of Ganesh Magar and Prem Kumar Shrestha in the inter-government service.
Meanwhile, defending champion Aslesha Lissanevitch clinched the title of the Fourth APF Open Lawn Tennis Tournament in the women´s singles thrashing Kalpana Thapamagar 6-0, 6-0. Kumar Adhikari won the men´s singles title with a comfortable 6-2, 6-3 win over Kamal Bahadur Bhandari of of NPC.
Likewise, the pair of Monoj Bikram Rana and Sanjeev Shrestha won the title of veteran´s doubles (above 45). Kamal Thapa won the title of veteran´s singles (above 35) with a commanding 6-1, 6-2 win over Rajesh Chhetri.
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