New pair Dewalkar-Sawant emerges champions

Nanded: The brand new pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Prajakta Sawant celebrated their union in grand style by emerging mixed doubles champions in the Maharashtra Senior State Selection Badminton tournament at the Yeshwant Sports Complex here on Thursday.
Using their vast experience of playing doubles to good effect, Dewalkar and Sawant thumped their Thane counterparts Abhishek Kulkarni and Saili Rane in straight games to clinch their maiden state title.The mixed doubles final was pre-poned by a day as Dewalkar and Sawant are flying to Russia on Friday to participate in the Grand Prix tournament.
Dewalkar and Sawant were stretched in the first game but once they pocketed the opener, they steamrolled their opponents. Dewalkar showed why he is rated as one of the best doubles players in the country with his rocket smashes and extraordinary placements.
Trailing 16-19 in the first game, Dewalkar and Sawant did not panic and levelled the scores at 19-19 thanks to some bullet overhead smashes by former. Despite down by a game point (19-20), Dewalkar and Sawant always looked confident to pull it off. They did it by winning the first game 22-20.
Sawant kept his job of creating the openings in the second game too and her partner made no mistake in finishing the rallies with powerful smashes.
Both Dewalkar and Sawant seemed happy with the result but admitted that they need to work on some areas to face the tougher international competition. “We wanted to start our new partnership with a state title. We are glad that we have done that. We are still adjusting. After playing for four years with Pradnya (Gadre), I am trying to gel as quickly as possible with Prajakta. We need to sort out few issues and hopefully it will come by playing some tournaments together,” Dewalkar told TOI after clinching the title.
After men’s top seed Subhankar Dey’s ouster on Wednesday, it was the turn of women’s No. 1 seed Neha Pandit to follow suit on Thursday. The experienced Pandit squandered away a one-game lead to lose to her Pune citymate Revati Devasthale. The promising teenager Devasthale rallied back superbly to win the quarterfinal 13-21, 21-16, 21-13.
Saili Rane, who defeated Nagpur’s Mugdha Agre 21-9, 21-7 in the pre-quarters, moved to the last four with a hard-fought three-game win over Vaishnavi Iyer.
In the men’s doubles Amrish Shinde and Nikhil Kolhatkar prevailed over Nagpur youngsters Gaurav Rege and Govind Sahasrabuddhe 21-15, 21-17.
RESULTS
Men’s singles (Quarters)
Siddharth Thakur bt Arijeet Bose 21-14, 19-21, 21-14; 3-Nigel D'Sa bt Harshad Bhagwat 11-7 (conceded); Harsheel Dani bt Viplav Kuvale 21-6, 21-10; 2-Kabir Kanzarkar bt Ameya Oak 21-18, 21-10.
Women’s singles (Quarters): Revati Devasthale bt 1-Neha Pandit 13-21, 21-16, 21-13; Riya Pillai bt Shruti Mundada 21-23, 21-9, 21-15; Saili Rane bt Vaishnavi Iyer 13-21, 21-13, 25-23; 2-Mudra Dhainje bt Vaidehi Choudhari 21-10, 21-18.
Men’s doubles (Quarters): 1-Kabir Kanzarkar-Akshay Raut bt Amey Joshi-Mayur Tawde 21-12, 21-16; 4-Eshan Naqvi-Vighnesh Devlekar bt Purushattam Awate-Prashant Bahatre 21-13, 21-13; Nishad Dravid-Abhishek Kulkarni bt Ganesh Mahalle-Utkarsha Shilwant 21-9, 21-14; 2-Abhidnya Sawant-Prasad Shetty bt Amrish Shinde-Nikhil Kolhatkar 21-13, 21-19.
Mixed doubles (semis): Abhishek Kulkarni-Saili Rane bt 1-Nishad Dravid-Manasi Gadgil 21-13, 23-21; 2-Akshay Dewalkar-Prajakta Sawant bt Vighnesh Devlekar-Revati Devasthale 21-18, 22-20.
Final: 2-Akshay Dewalkar-Prajakta Sawant bt Abhishek Kulkarni-Saili Rane 22-20, 21-13.