Gaikwad-Patil International School-SJAN Media Badminton begins on Saturday

NAGPUR: Gaikwad-Patil International School-SJAN

Media Badminton tournament

, organized by the Sports Journalists' Association of Nagpur in association with

Dhanwate National College

(DNC), will get underway at the DNC College Indoor Hall, Congress Nagar, here on Saturday.

Gaikwad-Patil Group chairman Mohan Gaikwad will be the chief guest and will inaugurate the three-day tourney at 11 am on Saturday. Indian badminton team's doubles specialist Akshay Dewalkar will be the special guest. DNC College principal Baban Taywade and Gaikwad-Patil International School principal Shabih Chaurasia will be the guests of honour on the occasion.

Former National men's doubles champion Akshay Dewalkar will arrive in the city from Mumbai on Saturday morning for the inauguration. He will also interact with the local media.

Lokmat's Ashish Jain has been given the top billing in the men's singles, while

Suhas Nayse

of The Times of India is seeded second. In the women's singles, Manjusha Joshi of Maharashtra Times is the top seed, while

Rakhi Chavhan

of Loksatta is second.

Matches will be played with Yonex feather shuttles. Attractive prizes will be given to the winners, runners-up and semi-finalists. Yonex will sponsor the T-shirts for all the winners and runners-up.

All the participating players have been asked to report at the venue at 9. 30 am and contact chief referee of the tournament Kunal Dasarwar. Matches will start at 10 am.

All the finals will be played on Monday morning followed by the prize distribution function.

SeedingsMen's singles: 1. Ashish Jain, 2. Suhas Nayse, 3. Sujan Masid, 4. Raviraj Ambadwar.

Men's doubles: 1. Ashish Jain-Raviraj Ambadwar, 2. Suhas Nayse-Fakhruddin Bohra, 3. Subodh Ratnaparkhi-Sandeep Wardhane, 4. Dharmendra Kumar-Abhishek Choudhari.

Women's singles: 1. Manjusha Joshi, 2. Rakhi Chavhan.

Mixed doubles: 1. Ashish Jain-Pradnya Banerjee, 2. Suhas Nayse-Priti Yadav.