Kerala State senior badminton championships: Govind Krishna lifts maiden men’s singles title; Andrea Sarah Kurien retains women’s crown

Kerala State senior badminton championships: Govind Krishna lifts maiden men’s singles title; Andrea Sarah Kurien retains women’s crown. The top-seeded Andrea Sarah Kurien retained her State women’s title but she was also stretched to three games by second-seed Farza Nazrin.

There was one phase early in the second game of the Kerala State senior badminton championship’s men’s final on Sunday when Govind Krishna felt all was lost.

The 22-year-old from Kozhikode, yet to recover fully from a recent hamstring injury, had lost the opening game against Ernakulam’s S. Abhishek and was down 0-4 in the next.

“At that stage, I thought the match was gone and I felt I didn’t have anything to lose so I played a bit more freely. And then, I got into the zone,” said Govind after defeating Abhishek 13-21, 21-15, 21-17 for his maiden State senior title at the CSN Trust hall here.

“He made many mistakes in that second game, he lost the rhythm and I got in.”

And suddenly Abhishek, from Ernakulam, who had looked so inspired in the opening game appeared to have serious doubts about himself in the second game as Govind levelled at nine and then broke away to a 19-15 lead with some telling smashes.

The two were level for a major part of the decider but Abhishek gained a 15-12 lead. However, once Govind equalised at 15, the former turned jittery and committed a series of mistakes.