Men’s singles winner P. Kashyap and women’s singles champ Saina Nehwal (below) pose after their triumph at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Sunday. Pictures by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Feb. 18: P. Kashyap of Andhra Pradesh upset top seed Chetan Anand to capture the men’s singles badminton title at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium at Amingaon today.

Saina Nehwal of Andhra Pradesh, number one in the women’s section, swept aside Aditi Mutatkar of Maharashtra in straight games to emphasise yet again the reason she is called the next big hope for India in badminton.

Anand went down to his statemate 21-19, 10-21, 23-25 in the keenly contested final while teen prodigy Nehwal clinched a victory over Mutatkar.

“I was not playing to my potential today. That may be because of mental fatigue, as I had come here soon after playing in the senior nationals and Malaysian Super Series,” a disappointed Anand told The Telegraph.

Kashyap, too, expressed his unhappiness at the way he played today. “Though I have won, I have committed some errors and lost focus in the first game,” he said.

“I will work on my fitness and concentration levels to put up a better performance at the international level,” Kashyap added.

Nehwal beat Mutatkar 24-22, 21-15 to bag the women’s singles gold. She was happy with her gold-winning performance here today. Nehwal had recently won her maiden senior national title in Patna.

She is currently looking forward to improving her performance at the international level, too.

In the women’s doubles final, Shruti Kurien and Jwala Gutta posted a facile 21-7, 21-4 win over Bibari Basumatary and Oli Deka from Assam to complete the hattrick of badminton titles for the Andhra Pradesh team on the final day of 33rd National Games today.

Sagar Chopra and Ajay Jayram of Maharashtra won the bronze in the men’s singles while Aparna Balan of Kerala and Jwala Gutta of Andhra bagged the bronze in the women’s singles.

Kerala’s Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas scored a comfortable 2-0 win against statemates V. Diju and Jaseel P. Ismail to win the gold.

The bronze went to Vineet Manuel and Jose George of Karnataka and Marcos Bristow and Jaison Xavier of Kerala.

Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, excise minister Gautam Roy and East Guwahati MLA Robin Bordoloi, along with other dignitaries, gave away the medals.