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Bhubaneswar.October 22: Odisha’s badminton prodigy Rutaparna Panda won her 1st international women’s doubles title along with her partner Arathi Sara Sunil at the Hellas Open badminton tournament in Greece yesterday.
The Indian players beat France’s Vimala Heriau and Margot Lambert 21-19, 21-12 in a time duration of 50 minutes to win the title.
Panda and Sara, who started playing together only in May this year, had first paired up for the two selection tournaments for the Asian Games. They had won one of them and reached the semi-finals of the other.
Panda, who was a trainee in Badminton legend Pullela Gopichand’s Academy in Hyderabad, graduated from the junior level earlier this year.
Prasanta Patnaik