Hyderabad: Hosts Andhra Pradesh started its gold hunt in the 32nd National Games in style, winning both the men and women badminton team championships at the GMC Balayogi Indoor Stadium on Friday.

While it was a hat-trick of titles for the Andhra women who beat a spirited Maharashtra 2-1, the men's team made light of the absence of star shuttler Pullela Gopichand, scoring a comfortable 3-1 win against Kerala in the finals.

In the women's final, after losing the first match, Andhra bounced back winning the doubles match to tie the score 1-1 before Deepti came up with a splendid show to register an upset 11-4 5-11 11-9 win against Manjusha Kanwar.

The Maharashtra women started on a winning note with Tripti Mangarish stunning Neelima Choudhry 11-2 11-5 as the Andhra girl committed a few unforced errors. However, the hosts made amends in the doubles, which the formidable pair of Jwala and Shruti won 11-2 11-5 trouncing Tripti and Manjusha.

The final singles kept both players and audience on their toes with Manujusha winning the second game after dropping the first. She rallied superbly in the decider with deft placements and exploited the inexperience of Deepti to a certain extent. But the Andhra girl kept her cool and unleashed some fine smashes to pull off a sensational win.

PTI