Mahnoor Kaur, Rijul Saini and Chanchal take honours on Day 1

Mahnoor Kaur of Punjab rallied into the women’s singles third round with a 15-8, 15-10 win over Bhavni Dalpatia of Jammu and Kashmir on the opening day of the Scott-Edil Invitational Badminton Tournament that is being conducted by the Mohali District Badminton Association, under the aegis of Badminton Federation of India, at Shivalik Public School. A total of 117 players are competing in the tournament.

The opening game of the match on Friday saw Kaur and Dalpatia matching each other before the former took control of the game to win 15-8. Leading by 1-0, Kaur claimed some crucial points in the second game to grab the second game with a 15-10 margin and sealed her spot in the next round. In another match in the same category, Rijul Saini of Chandigarh fought her way hard to carve out a 14-15, 15-7, 15-10 win over Ruby of Himachal to book her spot in the third round. Both the players started the match with confidence as the opening game saw both the players matching each other skill-for-skill. It was Ruby who claimed the opening game with a 15-14 margin to take a 1-0 lead in the match. The second game saw Saini regrouping and taking control, winning the game 15-7. With the scoreline tied 1-1, Saini came into the third game bubbling with confidence and closed out the game 15-10 to sail into the third round of the tournament.

Friday was also a winning day for Chanchal of Haryana as she claimed a 15-12, 15-13 win over Sarushi Kanwar of Chandigarh to enter the third round in the same category. Chanchal claimed the opening game 15-12 before grabbing the second game 15-13 to advance further in the tournament.

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In the men’s singles category, Lakshaya Sharma of Punjab sealed his spot in the third round with a 15-11, 15-13 win over Kush Vats of Delhi. Sharma claimed the opening game 15-11 before prevailing 15-13 in the second game to advance into the third round. In another match in the same category, Ruthvik Mohanti of Punjab scored a 15-10, 15-10 win over Mohit of Chandigarh to book his spot in the third round. Mohanti pocketed the opening game 15-10 before claiming the second game with an identical margin. It was joy for Arjun Rehani of Delhi too as he carved out an easy 15-6, 15-10 win over Diyansh of Himachal Pradesh to advance into the third round.

In the men’s doubles category, the pair of Akshit and Hardik of Haryana ended the challenge of Rajat Kang and Shubham Samber with a 15-7, 15-2 win to advance into the second round. Akshit/Hardik claimed the opening game 15-7 before pocketing the second game 15-2 to seal the win.