Maharashtrians Nitin, Nishad steal the show

MUMBAI, AUG 23: Two seeds, No 4 Anup Sridhar of Karnataka and No 6 Gaurav Singh did not survive the hectic first-round action in the Rs 2...

MUMBAI, AUG 23: Two seeds, No 4 Anup Sridhar of Karnataka and No 6 Gaurav Singh did not survive the hectic first-round action in the Rs 2-lakh Grand Prix Badminton tournament being held at the Dadoji Konddeo Stadium today.

Maharashtra’s Nitin Ingole knocked out Sridhar 15-11, 15-13 while Nishad Dravid, another state player, defeated Gaurav Singh 15-9, 15-10.

Ingole, a good defensive player, kept tossing the shuttle high to keep Sridhar pinned to the back court. Sridhar, who held leads in both the games — 7-4 in both the games before losing out — was never allowed any leeway in both the games though the second game was well fought. Down 8-11 in the first, he almost pulled level at 10-11, won one more point before losing the game.

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In the second, Sridhar seemed in control despite letting Ingole pinch away at his lead. From 7-4 to 8-7 and then another minor lead at 11-9. But Ingole used the toss to good effect even as the fight went on. At 13-all the players fought for another two points.

There was onebreak of service, but the winner was never in doubt. Dravid, a 16-year-old, having been seeded third in the under-16 section. The Nagpur lad held a big lead at 9-2 but let Gaurav come back into the game at 10-7. But he tightened his game and conceded only two more points before wrapping up the first. In the second game, Dravid was in strife, down 0-6 and 3-10 before he staged a remarkable recovery, conceding no more points in closing out Gaurav from the tournament in singles.

In another upset, second seed Prakash Kashyap of Karnataka lost to unseeded UP player Ashutosh Pant in straight games. Kashyap’s fight was restricted to the early parts of each of the two games as Pant won in a canter after it fizzled out.

Results (1st round)

Junior boys singles: Chetan Anand (Air-India) bt Utsav Prakash (Kar) 15-4, 15-3; Ramesh Naidu (AP) bt Ajit Phatak (Mah) 15-9, 16-17, 15-5; V Diju (Ker) bt Deepak Siddhy (Chd) 15-5, 15-8; Himanshu Thakkar (Mah) bt K Srinivasan (AP) 15-10, 15-10; Nitin Ingole (Mah) btAnup Sridhan (Kar) 15-11, 15-13; Anupam Singh (Mah) bt Varun Sharma (Chd) 15-7, 15-7; Mitesh Hajarnis (Rly) bt Rahul Tipnis (Mah) 15-8, 15-2; A Prithvi (A-I) bt Anand Ganguly (Railway) 15-7, 15-10; Sumedh Deorukhkar (Mah) bt Swapnil Dharwadkar (Goa) 15-0, 15-2; Abhishek Bakshi (A-I) bt Vikas Reddy (AP) 15-7, 15-7; Prashant Bahatre (Mah) bt Vinod Kumar (AP) 15-0, 15-0; Nishad Dravid (Mah) bt Gaurav Singh (A-I) 15-9, 15-10; PV Sajith (Ker) bt Akshay Thakkar (Mah) 15-8, 15-8; Arup Baidya (Railway) bt Vinayak Puthran (Mah) 15-5, 15-1.

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Doubles: Mitesh Hajarnis (Rly)/ V Diju (Ker) bt Vinayak Puthran (Mah)/ Rahul Tipnis (Mah) 15-3, 15-7; Amar Mohite (Mah)/ Sumedh Deorukhkar (Mah) bt T Charanjit Singh (A)/ NN Vinayak 11-15, 15-9, 15-9; Chetan Anand/ A Prithvi (A-I) bt Vivek Sharma/ Deepak Siddhu (Chd) 15-8, 15-1; Nitin Ingole/ Prashant Bahtre (Mah) bt Aditya Pandya/ Sujay Thakkar (Mah) 15-11, 15-8; Sandeep Luis/ PV Sajith bt B Vikar Reddy/ Srinivasan 15-9, 15-10; S Krishna/ Gaurav Singh bt C Vaison/ RHaridas 15-12, 15-7; V Arun/ G Gokul bt Akshay Thakkar/ Himanshu Thakkar (Mah) 15-6, 15-11; Abhishek Bakshi/ Anup Sridhar bt Manish Gupta/ Navjeet Singh 15-1, 15-3.

Under-13 (singles): Anshuman Hazarika (ASM) bt Rohit Prabhu (Mah) 15-2, 15-2; Akshay Jogdeo (Mah) bt Surya Prakash (UP) 15-7, 15-7; Rohit Sadani (Mah) bt ND Anupkiran (Kar) 15-1, 15-2; Vikram Bhatnagar (Mah) bt Viraj Torsekar (Mah) 15-10, 15-7; T Dinesh (AP) bt Pratik Patel (Guj) 15-0, 15-1; Rohit Narke (Mah) bt Kartik Shenoy (Mah) 15-6, 15-8; Ajay Jayram (Mah) bt Madhur Prakash (UP) 15-9, 15-0; Akshay Devalkar (Mah) bt Sanket Naidu (Mah) 15-1, 15-5; Siddharth Bhimani (Mah) bt Kaustubh Khare (Mah) 15-8, 15-4; Amit Khadgi (Mah) bt Saurab Singh 15-6, 15-3; Ashutosh Pant (UP) bt P Kashyap (Kar) 15-6, 15-7.

Doubles: Hazarika (Asm)/ Anand Pawar (Mah) bt Neel Kanthan/ Aniketh Vyavahare (Mah) 15-0, 15-0; Madhur Prakash/ Ashutosh Pant (UP) bt Kartik Shenoy/ Amey Joshi (Mah) 15-2, 15-3; Rohit Narke/ Akshay Devalkar (Mah) bt Surya Prakash/Antariksha Singh 15-8, 15-6; T Dinesh(AP)/ P Kashyap (Kar) bt Kaushik Krishnan/ R Prabhu (Mah) 15-10, 15-2.

Girls: Under-19 (singles): Nupura Bhide (Mah) bt Sim Sim Salaria (Mah) 11-4, conceded; Neha Gangolli (Mah) bt Neha Vad (Mah) 11-0, 11-5; Fatima (Ker) bt Poonam Tiwari 7-11, 11-0, 11-1; Triuti Murgunde (A-I) bt Diva Arora 11-3, 13-10; Gauri Narayan (Mah) bt Neha Makwana (MP) 11-8, 6-11, 11-3; Shruti Kurian (AP) bt Nikita Hurkadli (Mah) 11-5, 11-3; Mugdha Bhagwat (A-I) bt Deepti Paranjpe (Mah) 13-11, 11-3; Kranti Sane (Mah) bt Shalini Prakash (Kar) 11-3, 11-6.

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Under-19 doubles: Mansi Bhave/ Dhanya Nair (Mah) bt Sweta Singh/ Neha Goyal (UP) 15-4, 15-5; Ketaki Thakar/ Mugdha Bhagwat (A-I) bt Ruta Pitke/ Diva Arora (Mah) 15-6, 15-3; Pooja Patil/ BN Ashwini (Kar) bt Krishti Das/ Rini Hazarika (ASM) 15-3, 15-2; Neha Gangolli/ Kranti Sane (Mah) bt Shalini Prakash/ Aditi Biswas (Kar) 13-15, 15-5, 15-2; Trupti Murgunde (A-I)/ Parul Priyadarshini (Railway) bt Merit George/ Kar Anumol (Kar) 9-15,15-1, 15-6; Dipti Paranjape/ Shivani Mayekar (Mah) bt Neha Makwana/ Rashmi Khedekar (MP) 15-11, 15-12; Gauri Narayan (A-I)/ Fatima (Ker) bt Sim Sim Salaria/ Nupuru Bhide (Mah) 15-9, 15-9.