Nagpur shuttlers Malvika, Ritika storm into Junior Nationals finals

NAGPUR: It was a Super Sunday for Malvika Bansod and Ritika Thaker. Two of the city’s most talented shuttlers stamped their authority in style by storming into the finals in the 42nd Junior (U-17 and U-19) National Badminton Championships being played at Guwahati.
Malvika sailed into the final of the U-17 girls singles with a resounding performance in which she did not lose a single game so far.While Malvika excelled in the singles, Ritika dominated the doubles by reaching the U-19 girls doubles summit clash with her Mumbai partner Simran Singhi.
However, together they missed creating a national record. Both Malvika and Ritika had reached the semifinals of their respective events and were in contention for bagging double crown each.
Playing four matches in a day perhaps took a heavy toll on their body as both Malvika and Ritika lost their respective last match of the day.
“It was quite a hectic day for me. I had to play two quarterfinals and two semifinals in a day. After playing the U-17 singles semis later in the evening, I got less than an hour’s break for my U-19 semis. I just could not deliver my best while playing against top seed Aakarshi Kashyap and lost. Anyways I was happy to reach one of the finals,” Malvika told TOI from Guwahati.
Incidently, Malvika will again face Aakarshi Kashyap of Chhattisagh in the U-17 final on Monday.
“I hope to play better and turn the tables on Aakarshi tomorrow. I used to beat her sometimes during the camp of World Junior Championship a couple of months ago. With a good rest, I should be able to perform better on Monday,” said Malvika, who had never progressed beyong quarterfinal stage in the Junior Nationals.
Malvika’s coach Kiran Makode admitted that her student was slow while playing the fourth match of the day against Aakarshi.
“The pace and accuracy which she displayed against Gayatri in the morning was not there against Aakarshi. She was slow in her movements and that is understandable. She will be fresh tomorrow morning and hopefully she will win the maiden junior national crown,” said Makode, who is doing duty as the Maharashtra squad coach.
Malvika was on fire while playing the U-17 singles against Gayatri Gopichand Pullela. Second seed Malvika made the light work of 14-year-old Hyderabad youngster with a fluent 21-11, 21-8 win in 29 minutes. Interestingly, Malvika had lost to Gayatri last month in the quarterfinal of the Krishna Khaitan Memorial All India Junior Ranking tournament at Chandigarh last month from match-point situation.
The performance of Ritika was also commendable. The 16-year-old also played four matches and established herself as the future doubles star of the country.
The pair of Ritika and Simran, who has been playing together for nearly five years now, lived up to their growing reputation and made it to the final of U-19 doubles after losing narrowly in the U-17 doubles semis.
Ritika-Simran pair will now have to raise the bar as they are taking on top seeds Rutaparna Panda and UK Mithula in the U-19 final on Monday.
The giant-killing spree of Rohan Gurbani came to an end in the U-17 boys singles quarterfinal. The unseeded city shuttler went down fighting in three games.
Sixth seed Iman Sonowal of Assam halted the dramatic run of Rohan with a 21-13, 13-21, 21-15 win in 40 minutes. The local boy got a huge crowd cheering which might have affected Rohan’s concentration in the tense three-game encounter.
Fifteen-year-old Rohan, a Standard IX student of Centre Point School, Katol Road, caused two big upsets including the knocking of second seed K Sathish Kumar
on his way to reach his maiden quarterfinal. A trainee of Bangalore-based Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, Rohan had his chances in the third game but failed to capitalize on them.
NAGPUR RESULTS
(Quarterfinals) U-17 girls singles: 2-Malvika Bansod bt 5-Gayatri Gopichand Pullela 21-11, 21-8.
U-19 girls singles: 11-Malvika Bansod bt Dipti Kuity 21-12, 21-19.
U-17 boys singles: Rohan Gurbani lost to 6-Iman Sonowal 13-21, 21-13, 15-21.
U-17 girls doubles: 2-Ritika Thaker-Simran Singhi bt Srivedya Gurazada-Sai Shriya Yanamandra 21-7, 21-11.
U-19 girls doubles: 2-Ritika Thaker-Simran Singhi bt 7-K Preethi-Tapaswini Samantroy 23-21, 13-21, 21-12.
(Semifinals) U-17 girls singles: 2-Malvika Bansod bt 4-Unnati Bisht 21-12, 21-13.
U-19 girls singles: 11-Malvika Bansod lost to 1-Aakarshi Kashyap 16-21, 14-21.
U-17 girls doubles: 2-Ritika Thaker-Simran Singhi lost to 5-Trisha Hegde-Drithi Yatheesh 20-22, 14-21.
U-19 girls doubles: 2-Ritika Thaker-Simran Singhi bt 5-Shruti Mishra-Samriddhi Singh 21-7, 21-18.