All-India Junior Badminton | Aashi Rawat beats Gayatri Gopichand to reach final
Young Aashi Rawat hogged all the limelight at the All-India Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament as she defeated Malvika Bansod and Gayatri Gopichand to make it to the final. In another match, Samiya Imad Farooqui reached the final from the other end by overcoming Akshaya Arumugam.
The sixteenth seed managed to have two massive victories on a single day to move into the final of the prestigious tournament at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium on Saturday. After beating third seed Malvika Bansod, the Delhi girl had a tough task ahead in the form of top seed Gayatri Gopichand.
However, Aashi defeated her 21-16, 21-10 in straight games and was visibly the better shuttler on the day. After taking the opening game, Ashi looked to grow in confidence and was seen racing to a 9-3 lead in a matter of minutes of the second game. It was a matter of time before the match was over and Aashi was seen going over to Gopichand to console her.
"Gayatri seemed to be having stomach cramps and found it difficult to move as she usually does. It feels good to be in the final. I didn't have any expectations coming into the tournament," said Aashi after her victory, reported TOI.
She will be against Farooqui next who defeated Tamil Nadu's Arumugam 21-16, 21-13 in her semifinal clash.
In the men’s singles clash, Manipur's Maisnam Meiraba overcame Tamil Nadu’s Sathish Kumar 21-13, 21-11 to seal a place in the boys singles final. He would be facing fifth seed Aakash Yadav in the final after Yadav defeated Manipur’s Bidyasagar Salam, 21-16, 21-15 in the semis.