Maharashtra Junior Badminton Ch’ship | Ritika Thaker, Simran Singhi win U-19 girls' doubles

Maharashtra Junior Badminton Ch’ship | Ritika Thaker, Simran Singhi win U-19 girls' doubles

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Nagpur shuttler Ritika Thaker and her partner Simran Singhi won the U-19 girls' doubles event as they were expected to after she failed to win the mixed doubles with Nabeel Ahmed. 16-year-old Kirtesh Chaudhari hogged all the limelight with his dangerous run although he didn’t win the singles.

Alongside Ahmed, Thaker had to go down fighting in the final in the mixed doubles event against Thane pair of Rohan Thool and Simran Singhi. But, she compensated that by winning the girls doubles as the local players kept their dominance intact in the tournament.

There weren’t any local players in the singles and boys' doubles finals after they narrowly missed. However, Chaudhari kept the excitement level high as he stunned everyone to go into the boys singles semis out of nowhere and almost came close to enter the final before he eventually lost 23-25, 11-21 in 33 minutes. 

The six-foot Ahmed also did well in the tournament as after doing decently in the team championship, he performed well in individual events too, although it took away much of the energy from him. Alongside Gandhar Nawale, Ahmed almost knocked second seeds Harshal Jadhav and Yash Shah out in the boys' doubles before they lost 16-21, 20-22. 

In the girls’ singles, Devika Kawale and Nikkita Joseph also impressed one and all. Kawale had stunned fancied Aarya Deshpande in the third round but failed to extend her outstanding display against Thane’s Urvi Thakurdesai in the very next round. Joseph, on the other hand, was the only girl from the city to reach last eight before she lost to Riya Kunjir in three games.

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