NAGPUR: District men's singles champion Gaurav Rege, Pranav Lokhande and Divij Shah started their campaign on a winning note in the qualifying rounds of the All India Senior Ranking Badminton tournament at Atul (Gujarat) on Saturday.
According to reports reaching here, Rege got a walkover from
Akshay Makkad
. In the second round, Rege will take on Vaibhav Jadhav.
In the men's doubles, Rege and Akshay Manwadkar will clash with Kawaldeep Singh and Rupinder Singh.
Lokhande edged out Shubham Anano 15-11, 14-15, 15-4 in 32 minutes. Lokhande will meet
Jaswinder Singh
in the next round.
Lokhande and Pratik Bode will lock horns with A Naresh and
Jayan James
in the men's doubles opening round on Sunday.
Young city shuttler Divij Shah rallied back to oust Sahil 8-15, 15-14, 15-13. He will meet Bhuvanesh Mahesh in the second round. Divij and Sankalp Chandragurala will face Divyansh Sangwan and Uttkarsh Shilwant in the men's doubles.
In the women's singles, city shuttlers Arundhati Pantawane, Rasika Raje, Vaishnavi Bhale and
Mugdha Agrey
are in the main draw and will be seen in the action later in the tourney.
Arundhati will take on
Anusha Nayak
of Madhya Pradesh in the first round. The ace city shuttler will meet fourth seed Anura Prabhudesai of Goa in the second round.
Nagpur's three other shuttlers -- Rasika, Vaishnavi and Mugdha -- are in the top half. Vaishnavi will meet Gujarat's Shenan Christian in the opening round.
Rasika will square off against Anuriya Das of West Bengal, while Mugdha will clash with a qualifier.
Suhas Nayse, Special correspondent, Sports, The Times of India, J...
Read MoreSuhas Nayse, Special correspondent, Sports, The Times of India, Jaipur edition.
He joined TOI Jaipur edition in February, 2023. He was also part of the TOI Nagpur edition from 2006 to 2020 as a sports reporter. He has been covering sports for more than two decades.
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