Anup Sridhar, who clinched men?s title, and Aparna Popat with their trophies on Sunday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur: Anup Sridhar and Aparna Popat clinched the men?s and women?s singles titles, respectively, at the 69th senior national badminton championships which concluded at the Mohan Ahuja Stadium on Sunday.

Sridhar won his maiden senior national singles title flooring Abhinn Shyam Gupta 15-4, 15-5 while Popatput it across the promising Saina Nehwal 11-3, 11-4.

Twenty seven-year-old Popat thus won the title eight times in-a-row.

Wild card entrants and top seed Sanave Thomas and KT Rupesh Kumar overcame stiff resistence from Jaseel P Ismail and V Diju to bag the men?s doubles crown with a 15-12, 14-17, 15-12 win while Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien made short work of Krishna Deka Raja and Oli Deka 15-3, 15-3 to claim the women?s doubles title.

Top seed Marcos Bristow and BR Meenakshi beat Jaison Xavier and Aparna Balan 15-3, 15-2 to win the mixed doubles title. Sridhar adopted the attacking mode of play against Gupta on way to his maiden title in 40 minutes. The lanky Sridhar also played well in the mid-court position to frustrate his rival.

The champion wrapped up the match in straight sets much to the surprise of the spectators who had anticipated an intersting summit clash.

?Well, I took to the court in a confident frame of mind. The quarter-final loss against Gupta in the last senior national was not hanging on me as I was positive in my approach throughout the outing,? Sridhar told The Telegraph.

Popat used all her experience to stop the march of 15-year-old Nehwal who showed a little bit of nerves while playing her fancied rival. Mumbai-based Popat of PSPB won the match inside 20 minutes.

?I think I have improved a lot. But I was under pressure for being the defending champion. Nehwal seems a strong shuttler who will mature,? said Popat.