UNSEEDED players Darshan Pujari and Aalisha Naik reigned supreme winning the men’s and women’s singles titles respectively in the Yonex Sunrise Nandu Natekar Memorial Maharashtra Senior Inter-District and State Badminton Championship that concluded at Divisional Sports Complex, Koradi Road, Mankapur, on Thursday.City’s Rohan Gurbani’s dream run ended with a runner-up spot while the duo of Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi lived up to their billing pocketing women’s doubles crown. After Rohan had stunned top seed Arya Bhivpathaki in the quarters on Wednesday, much was expected from the city shuttler. He did well to start the final day by defeating fourth seed Prathmesh Kulkarni 21-13, 21-10 to set a final match with Darshan, who beat Varun Kapur 21-16, 21-16 in the other semis. But Rohan faltered on the final hurdle and went down 21-12, 21-13 to Darshan, who raised his game to another level.

 

Aalisha shocked top seed Shruti Mundada in the women’s final winning 21-17, 21-13. In the semis, Aalisha had to rally after being a game down to beat Raksha Kandasamy 18-21, 21-14, 21-11 in three games while Shruti looked much better in her victory over Aarya Korgaonkar 21-18, 21-14. Ritika-Simran added one more trophy for their cabinets. In the all important summit clash, Ritika-Simran drubbed Mrunmayee Deshpande and Prerana Alvekar 21-7, 21-13 in straight games. Another city player Nikkita Joseph and her partner Sonali Mirkhelkar fought hard before losing their semi-finals bout 23-21, 24-22 to Mrunmayee and Prerana. Ritika-Simran entered the final when opponents Shruti Mundada and Tanishka Deshpande conceded the match with the former leading 13-8. Prizes were distributed by MLA Sunil Kedar, Kundatai Vijaykar, President, NDBA; Mangesh Kashikar, Secretary; Shekhar Patil, Dy Director, Sports; Uday Sane, Chief Referee; Viswas Deswandikar, Dy Referee; Milind Deshmukh, Course Co-ordinator; Aniruddha Joshi, Match Control; Anant Apte, Treasurer; Bhavana Agrey, Jt Secretary; Bhavesh Deshmukh, Gurdeep Singh Arora (all EC members, NDBA).

 

MLA Vikas Thakre, WCL, MOIL, Meditirina Institute of Medical Sciences and Varhadi Village supported the event.

OTHER RESULTS: MD SF — Viplav Kuvale and Viraj Kuvale bt Akshan Shetty and Deep Rambhiya 21-17, 21-17; Akshay Raut and Kabir Kanzarkar bt Abhyuday Choudhary and Zhakuo Seyie 21-14, 21-12. Final: Viplav Kuvale and Viraj Kuvale bt Akshay Raut and Kabir Kanzarkar 18-21, 21-10, 21-9. XD SF — Deep Rambhiya and Akshaya Warang bt Akshan Shetty and Ahillya Harjani 21-12, 19-21, 22-20; Pratik Ranade and Mahek Nayak bt Nihar Kelkar and Kripi Sajwan 21-16, 21-19. Final: Pratik Ranade and Mahek Nayak bt Deep Rambhiya and Akshaya Warang 24-22, 19-21, 21-14.