All India Junior Badminton: Malvika, Ritika, Rashi, Sourabh advance

NAGPUR: In-form city shuttlers

Malvika Bansod

,

Ritika Thaker

,

Rashi Lambe

and

Sourabh Kerhalkar

started their campaign on a rousing note in the All India Junior (U-17 and U-19) Ranking Badminton tournament at Jodhpur, Rajasthan, on Wednesday.

However, another rising star of Nagpur Rohan Gurbani had to withdraw from the tournament because of fever and fatigue.

"Last night Rohan had body pain and fever. He also vomited a couple of times. I told him to take some medicines which helped him catch some sleep. But after playing his U-19 singles match (10 am) he just could not recover from the bed for his U-17 match (1 pm) and withdrew from the tournament,” said Ravi Gurbani, Rohan’s father.

Recently crowned state U-17 boys singles at Karad, unfit Rohan lost to 15th seed Sanjay Thakur 12-21, 8-21. A few hours later, the Standard IX student of Centre Point School, Katol Road, Rohan, No. 15 seed, had to give walkover to Pranav Rao Gandham, a trainee of Pullela Gopichand Academy.

In the U-17 girls singles, second seed Malvika Bansod ousted Bharti Pal 21-16, 21-9, while third seed Ritika Thaker got the better of Garima Singh.

Malvika, who created a history at Karad by grabbing both the U-17 and U-19 girls singles titles, also moved up in the U-19 girls singles. The other two city shuttlers Rashi Lambe and Gargi Joshi also won their respective first round encounters.

In the U-19 boys doubles second round, fourth seeds Sourabh Kerhalkar and Deep Rambhiya (Mumbai) trounced Arpan Sodani and Medhansh Vats 21-12, 21-14.

NAGPUR RESULTS (Round 1)
U-17 girls singles: 2-Malvika Bansod bt Bharti Pal 21-16, 21-9; 3-Ritika Thaker bt Garima Singh 21-9, 11-4 (Retired); Gargi Joshi lost to 10-Mansi Singh 13-21, 16-21.

U-19 girls singles: Malvika Bansod bt Anjana Kumari 21-14, 21-8; Rashi Lambe bt Garima Singh 21-17, 21-19; Gargi Joshi bt Manisha Rani Tirkey 22-20, 21-12.

U-19 boys singles: Rohan Gurbani lost to 15-Sanjay Thakur 12-21, 8-21.

U-19 boys doubles: 4-Sourabh Kerhalkar-Deep Rambhiya bt Ankur Dhiman-Gaurav Naman Singh 21-10, 21-15.

U-19 mixed doubles: 2-Sourabh Kerhalkar-Diksha Choudhary walkover Abhinav Sharma-Surbhi; Akshan Shetty-Rashi Lambe bt G Sudhish Venkant-CV Ramya 21-15, 21-11.