Malvika stuns top seed Aakarshi; Mugdha too enters quarters

NAGPUR: It was a mixed day for city shuttlers in the All India Junior (U-17 and U-19) Ranking Badminton tournament at Chennai on Friday.

While it was curtains for most of the city teenagers in the singles except Malvika Bansod and

Mugdha Agrey

, they fared well in their respective doubles events.

In-form city girl Malvika Bansod caused a major upset by knocking out top seed Aakarshi Kashyap of Chhattisgarh 21-17, 21-12 in the U-19 singles.

Unseeded Malvika will meet her city counterpart Mugdha Agrey for a spot in the semifinal on Saturday. Eleventh seed Mugdha, who last week finished runner-up at the Lagos International tournament in Nigeria, shocked fifth seed fifth seed M Tanishq of Telangana 21-17, 21-19.

However, seventh seed Gayatri, daughter of Pullela Gopichand, shocked third seed Malvika 21-17, 21-18 in the U-17 girls singles.

Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi (Mumbai Suburban) entered the quarterfinals in both the U-17 and U-19 girls doubles.

Rashi Lambe

also booked her place in both the U-19 girls doubles and U-19 mixed doubles.

Another promising city shuttler Sourabh Kerhalkar has made it to the U-19 mixed doubles with his Chhattisgarh partner Diksha Choudhary.

In the U-17 doubles, Ritika and Simran crushed

Priya Devi

and Maheshwari Devi 21-3, 21-14 avenging their defeat in the All India tournament earlier, to set up quarterfinal clash with

Shruti Mishra

and Samriddhi Singh.

In the U- 19 girls doubles, Ritika-Simran brushed aside Kavya Gandhi and Riya Sachin of Delhi 21-13, 21-14 and will play third seeds Diksha CHoudhary and Preeti K in the quarterfinals.

In the U-17 singles quarter, it was curtains for Ritika as she went down fighting to Samiya Farooqui of Telangani in three games.