SEEDED second in the tournament, Nagpur’s Rutva Sajwan secured first position in the boys singles Under-19 event at the GH Raisoni Maharashtra State 2nd Junior (U-19) Badminton Selection Tournament that concluded at Club One, Rustomjee Global City, Virar West, Palghar on Wednesday. In the tournament that saw 179 players fighting it out in five events, Rutva won the title defeating third seed Tanay Mehendale in three games 21-17, 19-21, 21-19. Starting the tourney, Rutva beat Hrugved Bhosale 15-6, 15-8 in Round of 64. In the next round, he defeated Garvit Mehandiratta 15-5, 15-7. In the pre-quarterfinal, Rutva continued with his form to win again in two games against 12th seed Pranay Gadewar 15-9, 15-10. In the quarter-final, Rutva lost the first game to fifth seed Avadhut Kadam but then rose to the occasion taking the next two.

 

The scores read 16-21, 21-12, 21-17. The semi-final against sixth seed Harshit Mahimkar was almost identical to the quarters. Rutva again showed his never-say-die attitude and bounced back fro a game deficit to enter the final. He won 17-21, 21-14, 21-17. Rutva, who took home a trophy a gold medal, was congratulated by Arun Lakhani (President, MBA), Kundatai Vijaykar (President, NDBA), Mangesh Kashikar (Sr Vice-President, MBA & Secretary, NDBA), Anand Sancheti, Amit Bajaj, Shriram Purohit (Vice-Presidents, NDBA), Bhavana Agrey (Joint Secretary, NDBA), Anant Apte (Secretary – Tournaments & Events), Madhavi Kashikar Hedaoo (Secretary – Coaching), Gurdeep Singh Arora, Neha Gosavi, Nikhil Rokde, Ashwin Harkare (Executive Committee Members), Bhavesh Deshmukh and Sneha Faizpurkar (Co-opt Members).