Nagpur teenager Mugdha qualifies for main draw in Orleans Masters Badminton

NAGPUR: Mugdha Agrey did no harm to her growing reputation by qualifying for the main draw in the Orleans Masters BWF Tour Super 100 Badminton tournament which got underway at Orleans in France on Wednesday.
The eighteen-year-old city girl won two qualifying matches in a span of few hours to make the cut for 32-player women’s singles main draw.
In the first round, Mugdha ousted Isabel Zhong of USA 21-17, 21-17 in 27 minutes.A Standard XII student of LAD College, Mugdha dominated her US opponent, who is ranked 174th in the world.
In the second and final qualifying round, Mugdha rallied back strongly to edge out France’s Katia Normand 15-21, 21-18, 21-13 in a match which lasted for 41 minutes. Local girl Katia, who is ranked 185th in the world, started off well and won the first game to put Mugdha under pressure.
However, world No. 105, fought back gallantly to claim the hard-fought second game at 21-18. In the decider, Mugdha showed her true colours and clinched the match with a 21-13 score.
Mugdha will now take on her Indian counterpart Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli in the first round of main draw. It will be third meeting between the two in the international competition.
So far, Gopichand Academy student is leading 2-0 in head-to-head record. Sri Krishna Priya, world No. 63, has beaten Mugdha twice in last one year.
An RBI employee, Sri Krishna defeated Mugdha in straight games at the Syed Modi International Championship in January, 2017. However, in Noveber last year, Mugdha had stretched second seed Sri Krishna to three games in the Tata Open India International Challenge.
Mugdha had chance to upset Sri Krishna Priya in Mumbai five months ago. She had won the first game but squandered away a fine start to lose the match in decider.