Defending champion and top seed Hrissha Dubey of Jamnabai Narsee International School (Juhu) got the better of second seed Manya Avlani of Chatrabhuj Narsee Memorial School (Vile Parle) to retain the girls' U-16 singles crown in the CCI-MSSA inter-school badminton tournament at the CCI courts yesterday.

Hrissha, who trains full-time at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bangalore, has now completed a hat-trick of triumphs having won the girls'under-14 in 2017. Manya, who was down with fever, put up a brave performance and managed to comfortably win the first game. But, thereafter, she found the going tough and lost a close second before losing in the third as Hrissha wrapped up the contest winning at 13-21, 21-19, 21-13 to pocket her third successive title.