RITIKA Thaker of Nagpur entered women’s doubles event with a new partner Sonali Singh of Uttar Pradesh and made a mark for themselves at the Slovenia Open 2026. Being a new pair, they had to start as qualifiers. In the first qualifier, they beat home players Tija Horvat and Anja Jordan in straight games with the score reading 21-10, 21-09. In the second round of qualifiers, they faced Taiwan pair of Li An Chan and Yen Ting Shen. The India pair, playing with perfection, wrapped up the match in straight games with the scores reading 21-17, 21-14 after trailing 11-5 at interval to enter the main draw. In the main draw, they were up against higher ranked Ukrainian pair of Maria Koriagina and Yaroslava Vantsaro. The Indian pair lost the first game 16-21 but then made amends to win the next two games 21-11, 21-15 to reach the last 16.

 

There they were up against fourth seeds Chan Han and Jui Yi Hsu. Ritika and Sonali, playing with strong determination and aggressive badminton, did not let their higher ranked opponents settle down and wrapped up the match in straight games 21-16, 21-12 to reach quarter-finals. In the quarters, they had the uphill task against much experienced pair of Debora Jille and Meerte Loos. The Indians lost the first game at 13-21. They fought back hard but fell short against the experience of their opponents and lost the second game 22-24. After the match Ritika said she has plenty positives to take back home. She was very happy with her new partner and the way they played. They will discuss and iron out the drawbacks. Now they head to Austria Open and then Denmark Open from there before coming back to India. Another Nagpur player Nehal Gosavi, who participated in the women’s doubles event with Hiral Chouhan, lost in the second round to Malaysian pair of Lee Jonne and Tan Yu at 19-21, 16-21. Both the players practice at Arundhati Arun Badminton Academy under the watchful eyes of Arun Vishnu.