Like an expert magician, Arundhati Pantawane needed a special effort to prove that she belonged to the elite group of shuttlers. And the 24-year-old from Nagpur escaped defeat twice in a day and booked her maiden final berth in the senior national badminton championship here on Sunday.
Pantawane saved two match points against tournament favourite PV Sindhu in the quarters and then came back from the brink thrice in the semis against PC Thulasi. She will now face eight seed Aditi Mutatkar, who beat Neha Pandit of Airport Authority of India 21-15, 18-21, 21-13 in the summit clash on Monday.
The men's singles final will see Commonwealth Games bronze medallist P Kashyap take on former champion Aravind Bhat in an all-Petroleum final. Kashyap got the better of junior national champion Sai Praneeth 18-21, 21-14, 21-19 while Bhat overcame the challenge of Saurabh Verma of Madhya Pradesh 21-15, 13-21, 21-9.