Nagpur shuttlers Krisha, Mrunmayee enter All India Sub-Junior Ranking Badminton second round

NAGPUR: Upcoming city shuttlers Krisha Soni and Mrunmayee Pande entered the second round in the Yonex-Sunrise All India Sub-Junior (U-13) Ranking Badminton tournament at the NTR Stadium in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, on Thursday.
Qualifier Krisha rallied back strongly to shock Palak Arora of Haryana 15-21, 21-14, 21-8 in 37 minutes. Eleven-year-old Krisha did not have the best of start but as the match progressed she found her rhythm and quelled the spirited challenge from her Haryana opponent.
Krisha, a Standard VI student of Centre Point School, Wardhaman Nagar, will now take on fourteenth seed Hothrisri Thatigutla of Andhra Pradesh in the second round on Friday.
Earlier in the qualifiers, Krisha defeated Divya Dillibabu 15-8, 15-5 and Vinoothna Kommineni 15-5, 15-5 to make the cut for the 64-player main draw.
However in the U-13 girls doubles final qualifying round, Krisha and Nishika Gokhe lost to fourth seeds R Mowshika and S Hashini 11-15, 10-15.
In the first round, Nagpur pair of Krisha and Nishika had beaten Aparna Batchu and Preethika Chowdary Gundavarapu 13-15, 15-11, 15-11.
Mrunmayee Pande edged out Viya Balaji of Tamil Nadu 21-19, 22-20 in the U-13 girls singles first round. The hard-fought match lasted for half an hour and Mrunmayee kept her cool in the tough situation to get the better of TN rival.
Mrunmayee will now clash with eighth seed K Sreshta Reddy of Telangana.
In the U-13 girls doubles, sixth seeds Mrunmayee and Paridhi Chaudhari (Madhya Pradesh) ousted Pranika Holkar and Shara Mehta of MP 21-16, 21-19 in the first round.
Mrunmayee and Paridhi will face Nashik pair of Varada Ekande and Shravani Walekar for a spot in the quarterfinals.
Another city shuttler Pinak Rokde lost to qualifier Kavya Raghvendran of Maharashtra 14-21, 15-21 in the U-13 girls singles first round.