Jaipur: Teenage sensation Parul Choudhary became the first Rajasthan shuttler to win the national-level U-19 girls singles crown when the Churu girl reigned supreme in the Yonex-Sunrise All India Junior Ranking Badminton tournament 2025 which concluded at Madurai on Wednesday.Continuing her giant-killing run, seventeen-year-old Parul shocked second seed Kanishka Bijarnia 21-17, 21-10 in the one-sided U-19 girls singles summit clash.The higher-ranked West Bengal girl started off well and was leading initially, but fifth seed Parul caught up with her rival after the mid-game break to claim the opening game 21-17.Once Parul, who stunned top seed Adarshini Shri NB of Tamil Nadu 16-21, 21-14, 21-6 in the quarterfinal on Tuesday, grabbed the opener and she was unstoppable in the second game. Executing her down-the-line smashes and forehand strokes to perfection, Parul sealed the fate of her opponent by wrapping up the second game quite easily at 21-10.With this win, Parul maintained her unbeaten run against Kanishka. In the Indian team selection trials last year, Parul defeated her in three games but on Wednesday she sealed it in straight games.After dominating the national circuit’s U-17 category last year by entering the finals thrice and pocketing a couple of titles, Parul excelled in the higher-age group section this season.“It was certainly my career’s best achievement so far. I was determined to win the U-19 title this year. Before coming here, I was confident of making it to the final if not winning it. I have put in a lot of hard work in the last few months and was feeling well about my game,” Parul told TOI after the triumph.Parul termed this win as a perfect morale-booster for the main BAI U-19 Junior National Championship which will be held from November 18 to 24, in Itanagar.“It will be my third Junior Nationals and this time I want to perform better. It will help me boost my chances for the junior Indian team selection. I am really happy with my performance in Madurai as I caused three big upsets. In today’s final, I was trailing 10-11 at the break and the scores were equal till 15-all. I raised my bar thereafter and completed one of my best wins,” said Parul, who trains at the Heritage Badminton Academy, Gurgaon.Parul gives credit of her success to her parents, head coach Manish Sharma and support staff members including Deepak, Shakti, Hemant, Ansh Gaur and Rehan.Results (Finals)U-19 girls singles: 5-Parul Choudhary bt 2-Kanishka Bijarnia 21-17, 21-10U-19 boys singles: 2-Abhinav Garg bt 5-Bala Pranay Pragada 21-11, 21-11U-19 girls doubles: Ananya A-Anjana Manikandan bt 2-Durga Isha Kandrapu-Ishita Negi 21-15, 19-21, 21-13U-19 boys doubles: Aman Aneesh-Aathish Sreenivas PV bt Showrya Kiran J-Bala Pranay Pragada 21-17, 21-10U-19 mixed doubles: 2-Mithileish P Krishnan-Varna Prabhuanand gets a walkover from Q-V Harish Ragavendiran-Rubika Kumaran.
