State Badminton Championship: Pune shuttlers Saad, Shruti qualify for badminton quarterfinal

Pune's top seed Saad Dharmadhikari brushed aside a strong challenge from Kolhapur's Prerana Alvekar to qualify for the women's singles quarter-finals in Shri Nandu Natekar Memorial Maharashtra State Senior Inter District (Team) and State Badminton Championship.

In men's singles round of 32 matches, top seeded Pune's Varun Kapur eased past Rohit Borade (Raigad) 21-8, 21-17, while the second seed Yash Shah got past Shubham Pal (BAMU) 21-17, 21-7 to advance to the pre-quarter-finals.

Alvekar started promisingly against the fancied Dharmadhikari and won a close opening game.

But Dharmadhikari came into her own and dominated the next two games to complete an 18-21, 21-12, 21-12 victory to seal her place in the last eight.

The second seed Shruti Mundada from Pune got a walkover from Raksha Kandasamy (Raigad).

Thane's Siya Singh recovered after losing the first game against Nehal Gosavi (Nagpur) and went on to clinch a 19-21, 21-17, 21-10 victory to progress to the quarter-finals.

Results: Women’s singles (round-16): 1-Saad Dharmadhikari bt Prerana Alvekar 18-21, 21-12, 21-12; Mrunmayee Deshpande bt Prakriti Sharma 21-19, 21-10; Ananya Gadgil bt Shalmali Sutar 21-15, 21-10; Purva Barve bt Hrissha Dubey 21-14, 21-12; Aarya Korgaonkar bt Sanskruti Satarkar 21-15, 21-14; Isha Patil bt Bhatoye Naishaa 21-17, 1-0 retired; Siya Singh bt Nehal Gosavi 19-21, 21-17, 21-10; 2-Shruti Mundada W/o Raksha Kandasamy.

Men’s singles (round 32): 1-Varun Kapur bt Rohit Borade 21-8, 21-17; Pratmesh Kulkarni bt Ninad Kulkarni 17-21, 23-21, 21-10; Nagesh Chamle bt Ajay Meena 21-14, 21-17; Suveer Pradhan bt Ojas Gedam 12-21, 21-9, 24-22; 2-Yash Shah bt Shubham Pal 21-17 21-7.