Young Mumbai shuttler Shlok Ramchandran and his partner M. R Arjun chose this historic city of Tehran to create history and become the first Indians to win the Men’s Doubles crown at the 26th edition of the Iran Fajr International Challenge at the Iran Badminton Federation Sports Hall at the heart of the city.
In the semi finals and finals, the duo played spoil sports to badminton super power Indonesia’s plans by first ousting the fourth seeds Franky Wijaya and Sabar Karyaman Gutama in the semi final 11-9, 6-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8 in five tough games yesterday and then came back fresh on this Sunday afternoon to beat the fifth seeds Kenas Adi Haryanto and Muhammad Reza Pahlevi Isfahani 11-8, 11-8, 11-9 in straight sets to record the historic win. The Indian pair was aggressive from the first point and the 6’4” tall Shlok used his height to great advantage to hit some thundering smashes.
The Indonesians swept all four podium finishes in the Men’s Singles but couldn’t replicate the same in the Men’s Doubles though Wijaya and Gutama had put paid to the hopes of another Indian pair Arun George and Rohan Kapoor in straight games in the quarter finals and Haryanto and Isfahani had made short work of the top seeds Alwin Francis and Tarun Kona in the semifinals of the other half.
In the Women’s Doubles, the upcoming Indian pair of Sanjana Santosh and Aarati Sara Sunil had to be content with bronze after losing a close battle with Indonesians Ren-Ne Ong and Jia Ying Crystal Wong who also ended winning the title.
The points garnered from this win is expected to propel the young pair of Shlok and Arjun in to the Top 50 in World Rankings when the rankings are updated n Thursday.
“This is an important win for us. Not only will it take us closer to the exclusive Top 50 in world rankings, it also gives us the confidence to take on pairs from countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Japan and of course China. The plan is to reach Top 30 by the end of the year, let us see how it goes,” said a tired but happy Shlok Ramchandran.