Top seed Subramaniam stroms into semi-final
Mumbai, January 18: The top seed, Murli Subramaniam of Mumbai Suburban District easily defeated Avadhut Joshi of Pune District to storm into the semi-finals of the men’s 50+ singles category in the ‘Badminton 45’ Senior State Veterans Badminton Selection Tournament – 2018, conducted by the Maharashtra Badminton Association and hosted by the Bombay Gymkhana. Subramaniam was in complete control during the quarter-final match against Joshi and cruised to a 21-4, 21-7 victory.
Meanwhile, second seed Suresh Ayyappan of Pune District had to fight hard and was taken the distance before he managed to overcome Prashant Mukherjee of Raigad District in three games, winning at 21-19, 19-21, 21-13 to also book his place in the semi-finals.
In other quarter-final matches, Greater Mumbai District’s Naval Bir Kumar recovered brilliantly after dropping the first game to put it across Atul Kulkarni of Aurangabad District winning by a 17-21, 21-12, 21-1 scoreline. However, Gurmeet Singh Matharu of Aurangabad enjoyed a good outing and advanced to the last four as he overcame Ajay Srivastava of Mumbai Suburban District by 15-21, 21-18, 21-9 game score.
In women’s 50+ singles semi-finals encounter, top seed Saroj Sawant of Ratnagiri District defeated Surekha Satam of Mumbai Suburban District ) 21-7, 21-10 to set up a title clash with second seed Arpita Jhaveri of Greater Mumbai who scored a 21-7, 21-11 win against Balvinder Sapra of Mumbai Suburban in the second semi-final.
Results: Men’s 40+ singles (R-16): 1-Siddharth Patil (AUR) bt Gautam Laud (GM) 21-15 19-21 21-14; Manish Hadkar (PAL) bt Subash Balakrishnan (TH) 21-11 21-6; 4-Sachin Phadke (PN) bt Shrikant Jambhulkar (NGP) 21-9 21-10; Ashish Khedikar (NGP) bt Mohit Kheur (PN) 20-22 21-18 22-20; Sachin Bharati (GM) bt Rakesh Totla (NGP) 21-10 21-18; 3-Ajay Salvi (PAL) bt Lalitkumar Khonde (NGP) 21-19 21-5; Sandeep Mohan (MS) bt Praveen Moolethara (PAL) 21-14 21-5; 2-Raghav Bhosale (TH) bt Pravin Dabare (AMR) 21-11 21-10.
Men’s 50+ singles (quarter-finals): 1-Murli Subramaniam (MS) bt Avadhut Joshi (PN) 21-4 21-7; Naval Bir Kumar (GM) bt Atul Kulkarni (AUR) 17-21 21-12 21-1; Gurmeet Singh Matharu (AUR) bt Ajay Srivastava (MS) 15-21 21-18 21-9; 2-Suresh Ayyappan (PN) bt Prashant Mukherjee (BOR) 21-19 19-21 21-13.
Women’s 50+ singles (semi-finals): 1-Saroj Sawant (RTG) bt Surekha Satam (MS) 21-7 21-10; 2-Arpita Jhaveri (GM) bt Balvinder Sapra (MS) 21-7 21-11.
Women’s 40+ singles (R-16): Baby Pait (MS) bt Sweta Rai (MS) 21-15 18-21 21-10; Neelam Chauhan (MS) bt Sayali Parab (GM) 21-13 21-15; Archana Mehta (MS) w/o Swati Deshpande (TH); Urvashi Thapa (GM) bt Avniee Thakkarr (MS) 21-4 21-11.