After battling through for two matches lasting over two hours,six games and overcoming five match points in the space of one day,Arundhati Pantwane has made it to the finals of the 75th Senior Badminton nationals. She fought back from 10-17 down in the final game of the semi-finals against PC Thulasi,winning 21-14,19-21,24-22 and earlier in the quarters against PV Sindhu,had rallied from 2-10 and then 11-17 down to win 9-21,24-22,21-18 . In the pre-quarterfinals,she had defeated the defending national Champion Trupti Murgunde. Having come back from the brink,not for the first time in her career,Arundhati will now be playing Aditi Mutatkar in the finals. And although Arundhati has beaten Aditi earlier in the team event at the start of the tournament,she isn't promising anything for tomorrow. I really don't know what will happen. I have learnt the hard way not to make plans in advance. Arundhati now 21,was a promising player on the junior circuit and had reached the finals and the semifinals of the National Juniors the only two times she participated. In 2007 before she could play her third,she picked up a stress fracture on her shin. That meant that I had to take a year off. I missed the final year I was eligible for juniors,and then I got no practice for several months. From 2008 onwards I have just been trying to get back to where I was. Over two years she worked hard,first to regain her fitness and then get back into the game. In 2010,she reached the finals of two ranking tournaments. In the Hyderabad Grand Prix,she took Commonwealth silver medalist Wong Choo Mew to three sets and won a thirty-shot rally. But even those performances could not guarantee her a place in the main draw of the Nationals. She first had to go through the qualifying rounds. She also played in her team events and then played three rounds of the main draw when the top seeds received byes for their first matches. Before the start of the tournament,I did not have very high expectations of how I would perform here. I was thinking I would be lucky if I managed to make it to the quarterfinals When she looked down and out for the count against Sindhu and then against Thulasi,Arundhati was not thinking about how she would comeback. My only plan was to keep the shuttle in play. Since I did not carry huge expectations,I never felt any pressure. Before the tournament happened,I had promised myself,that no matter what I would fight it out for every point. Even in my quarters and semi-finals I was never completely sure on any occasion whether I was going to win. But there was no way I was going to give up. Ahead of her final,Arundhati,refuses to promise any outcome. What is sure though is that Aditi will have a fight on her hands. Results: Men (semifinals): 8-Arvind Bhat bt 5-Saurabh Varma 21-15,13-21,21-9; 13-P. Kashyap bt 16-P. Sai Praneeth 18-21,21-14,21-19; (quarterfinals): Varma bt 1-Chetan Anand 16-21,21-7,22-20; Bhat bt Pratul Joshi 21-18,21-7; Kashyap bt 7-Ajay Jayaram 21-10,21-14; Praneeth bt 15-Guru Sai Dutt 21-14,21-19. Women singles (semifinals): Arundhati Pantawane bt 4-P. C. Thulasi 21-14,19-21,24-22; 7-Aditi Mutatkar bt 3-Neha Pandit 21-15,18-21,21-13; (quarterfinals): Arundhati bt 6-P. V. Sindhu 9-21,24-22,21-18; Thulasi bt 5-Anita Ohlan 21-19,21-16; Neha bt Gauri Ghate 21-12,21-18; Aditi bt 2-Sayali Gokhale 21-15,21-17.
