SEASONED campaigner Nikhil Dixit of The Hitavada stormed into men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the SJAN-RAISONI Media Badminton Tournament organised by Sports Journalists Association of Nagpur (SJAN) in a joint venture with GH Raisoni Sports & Cultural Foundation, Department of Sports and Physical Education Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University and Nagpur District Badminton Association at Subhedar Badminton Hall, on Monday. After getting a walk-over in the opening round, Dixit steamrolled Navbharat’s Abhishek Singh 15-6, 15-3 in the Round of 32 to move into pre-quarterfinals to be played on Tuesday.

 

However, Dixit and his partner Kunal Badge went down fighting in the Round of 16 in the men’s doubles. After taking the first game 15-10 against Satish Dandare and Tanmay Moon of Navbharat, The Hitavada players let their opponents off the hook and conceded the second game 10-15. In the extended third game, it was neck and neck fight between the pairs but Dandare-Moon won crucial points to take it 16-14.

 

Top seed in men’s singles, Lokmat’s Ashish Jain, along with Shrikant Tikle, Raviraj Ambadwar, Rahul Singh Thakur, Wasim Qureshi, SS Ahmed, Dandare, Sarvesh Kalantri, Mahesh Sarangi, Saurabh Deshpande, Manish Sriwas, Moon and Rajesh Sharma made it to PQFs. At the outset, Dr Sambhaji Bhosale, Director of Sports and Physical Education, RTMNU, inaugurated the meet. Dr Mrunalini Naik, Director, GH Raisoni Sports & Cultural Foundation and Anant Apte, Secretary, Event & Tournament, NDBA were prominently present. SJAN President Naresh Shelke conducted the proceedings.