Arundhati enters quarters in All India Senior Ranking Badminton

NAGPUR: Making a comeback to the national-level badminton after her wedding early last month,

Arundhati Pantawane

stormed into the quarterfinals of the

All India Senior Ranking Badminton

tournament at Atul, Gujarat, on Friday.

Unseeded Arundhati rallied back strongly to knock out sixth seed

Anura Prabhudesai

of Goa in three games. In an exciting women's singles second round encounter, Arundhati lost the first game narrowly but bounced back in style to bag the next two games to book her berth in the last eight with a hard-fought 20-22, 21-15, 21-13 victory in 55 minutes.

Arundhati, who married to national doubles champion

Arun Vishnu

in Nagpur on January 2, will face

K Sri Krishna Priya

of Telangana on Saturday morning for a spot in the semi-final. Sri Krishna Priya shocked fourth seed

Revati Devasthale

of Pune in three games in the second round.

Vaishnavi Bhale

of Nagpur and PSPB's

Dhanya Nair

entered the second round in the women's doubles. The pair of Vaishnavi and Dhnaya will take on third seeds Shruti Mundada and Anura Prabhudesai on Saturday.

City's promising shuttlers Vaishnavi and Mugdha Agrey lost in the first round in the women's singles. While Vaishnavi could not get the better of former national champion Rituparna Das, Mugdha went down fighting against Pune's Mudra Dhainje.

In the men's singles, Sarang Lakhanee failed to get past No. 15 seed C Rahul Yadav in the second round. Sarang, a trainee of Pullela Gopichand Academy, had beaten Ansh Khanna in straight games in the opening round.

NAGPUR RESULTS

Women's singles (Round 1): Arundhati Pantawane bt Sneha Santhilal 21-17, 21-13; Vaishnavi Bhale lost to Rituparna Das 19-21, 15-21; Mugdha Agrey lost to Mudra Dhainje 17-21, 19-21.

Round 2: Arundhati Pantawane bt 6-Anura Prabhudesai 20-22, 21-15, 21-13.

Men's singles (Round 1): Sarang Lakhanee bt Ansh Khanna 21-11, 21-16.

Round 2: Sarang Lakhanee lost to 15-C Rahul Yadav 15-21, 15-21.

Women's doubles (Round 1): Vaishnavi Bhale-Dhanya Nair bt Riya Pillai-Sheshadri Sanyal 21-16, 19-21, 21-18.