Second seeded Riya Pillai of Mumbai suburbs and fourth seeded and defending champion Neha Pandit, of Pune, were given jitters by their respective rivals Riya Arolkar from Mumbai City and Mrunmayee Saoji, of Nagpur, before they entered the women’s singles pre-quarter-finals in the Safal Group-Maharashtra State senior badminton championships, organized by Sports United at Chembur Gymkhana, here today.
Neha Pandit
Seeded Riya, mixing aggression with deception , was off to fine start as she grabbed the first game 15-6. But the junior Riya gave her best in the second game to take the tie to the wire , winning the game 15-14. But th Chrmbur girl, having much more experience, turned on the heat in the decider, which she won 15-6 to romp home.
Neha Pandi, the women’s defending champion, after helping Pune to win the inter-district title last night, was a bit off colour as Nagpur’s Mrunmayee Saoji made her run around the court to win the first game 15-13, But Neha then fought back to put an end the spirited challenge of the Nagpur girl with a 13-15, 1t5-12, 15-10 win.
In other close encounters, another Nagpur girl Bhakti Dahahersa scored an impressive 15-12, 3-15, 15-7 win over Mumbai Suburbs Kairavi Thakore , while Richa Dawda, brought further joy to her Nagpur supporters by beating Aurangabad’s Sayli Kale 15t-9, 10-15, 15-13,
In the men’s singles, Thane’s Rohit More rallied after losing the first game to score over Nagpur’s Govind Sahasrabuddhe 13-15, 15-6, 15-10. Nagpur’s Ninad Kamat, who played a majore role in taking his team into semifinals of thre inter-district championships, put up another fine show as he beat Solapur’s Shripad Pardeshi 15-10, 14-15, 15-5. Thane’s Aman Sanjay Farogh was fully taken the distance by Satara’s Akshay Kadam before he was through with a 15-13, 10-15, 15-7 win.
CLOCK FOR TUESDAY
BADMINTON – 9 am onwards – open men’s and women’s singles and doubles, Maharashtra State championships, Chembur Gymkhana.