Record six Nagpur shuttlers to feature in women's singles of All India Senior Ranking tournament

NAGPUR: In another high for Nagpur badminton as many as six city girls will feature in the main draw of an All India Senior Ranking Badminton tournament for the first time.
While four players - top seed Vaishnavi Bhale, fourth seed Rasika Raje, eleventh seed Malvika Bansod and Rashi Lambe - got direct entry in the main draw on the basis of their current BAI rankings.Two other city youngsters joined them as they battle for supremacy with country's best in the season-opening tournament at Bengaluru.
All India Senior Ranking tourneys - the one underway at Bengaluru and next week's Hyderabad event - serve as the selection trials for the forthcoming Asian Games.
Ritika Thaker and Mrunmayi Saoji played well in the qualifiers to make the cut for the main draw of 64 players. It is for the first time that six city girls will compete in the main draw of any national event.
Top seed Vaishnavi will face qualifier Shivani Pathi in the first round. Eleventh seed Malvika will also meet a qualifier Uthsava Palit. Fourth seed Rasika will face another qualifier Ananya Praveen. Rashi will clash with Apeksha Nayak in the first round of main draw in the women's singles.
Qualifier Mrunmayi will face fifteenth seed G Vrushali. Mrunmayi, thrashed G Lakshmi 15-3, 15-3 in the last qualifying round. Qualifier Ritika, who ousted Nivedha Srinivasan 15-8, 15-8, will take on Ira Sharma.
Besides women's singles, several other city shuttlers qualified for the main draw in the women's doubles and mixed doubles. In the final qualifying round of mixed doubles, Akshay Kadam (Satara) and Bhakti Dahasahasra (Nagpur) thumped Mukesh Ravi Kakara and KPS Pragnya 15-7, 15-8. Akshay-Bhakti will take on Nanda Gopal Kidambi and Sanjana Santosh in the first round on Thursday.
Bhakti's practice partner Rashi Lambe also qualified for the main draw. Rashi and new partner Siddharth, seeded eighth, downed Uttam Jindal and Sriya Mehta 15-8, 15-5 in the final qualifying round. Rashi and Siddharth will run into sixth seeds Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh on Thursday.
In the women's doubles, fifth seeds Vaishnavi Bhale and Ningshi Hazarika (Assam) will lock horns with Shivani Santosh Singh and Mayuri Yadav in the first round.
Bhakti Dahasahasra and Pranjal Chimulkar (Goa) will meet Indian team doubles pair Sanyogita Ghorpade and Prajakta Sawant.
Sixth seeds Arundhati Pantawane and Anoushka Parikh (Gujarat) crushed D Joy Cinthia and M Swathi 15-5, 15-2 to make the cut for the main draw. They will face Mahima Aggarwal and Sanjana Santosh in the first round on Thursday.
Arundhati and her practice partner at the Pullela Gopichand Academy Gouse Shaik have main draw entry and will meet Aditya Nair and Sanghmitra Saikia in the first round.
Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi will face BV Ramya Tulasi and Varsha Belawadi in the first round.
City teenagers Anjali Kshirsagar and Nayan Thakre also qualified for the main draw and will play Pinky Karki and Tapaswini Samantroy.
In the men's singles, Rohan Gurbani won four matches in qualifying to clinch his place in the main draw where he will take on No. 12 seed Abhimanyu Singh. Fifteen-year-old Rohan dispatched Vinayak Dandavate 15-6, 15-7 in the final qualifying round.