Spearheaded by graceful lefthander Sushant Niddodi, Catholic Gymkhana made their maiden final, outplaying MIG CC (Bandra) 2-0, to storm into the team championships title round of the ICICI Lambard-6th Shuttlecraze Inter-Club Masters Badminton tournament hosted by Matunga Gymkhana at their air conditioned courts, here today. They next face hot favourites Bombay Gymkhana, who rallied to beat back the spirited challenge of Chembur Gymkhana 2-1.
Shailesh Daga
Evergreen Shailesh Daga of Bombay Gymkhana put up stand out performance, while making the finals of the men’s and mixed doubles finals. He partnered Ayaz Billawala to a thrilling 22-20, 23-21 win over Anand Vithalkar and Niranjan Shahane and later he and Deanne Rodrigues put out Ajitha Ravindran and Ajay Salvi 21-14, 21-9 to have a crack at the mixed doubles crown.. Chembur Gymkhana’s P.M.Balakrishna and Sidhraj Shah shocked second seeded Ashutosh Pednekar and Gautam Lad in an action-packed tie before they triumphed 21-14, 19-21, 21-12.
Results (All Semifinals):
Men’s doubles: (1)- Ayaz Billawala/Shailesh Daga bt Anand Vthalkar/Niranjan Shahane 22-20, 23-21; P.M.Balakrishna/Sidhraj Shah bt (2)- Ashutosh Pednekar/Gautam Lad bt Mandar Ranade/Kousambi 21-11, 21-10.
Women’s doubles: (1)-Deanne Rodrigues/ Neesha Springett Pooja Khandekar/Swapnal Chakraborty 21-13, 21-12; Binaffer Bharucha/Nisha Singh bt Lorraine D’Mello/ Rita Teotia 21-16, 21-19.
Mixed doubles: (1)- Ashutosh Pednekar/Naheed Divecha bt Ayaz Billawalla/Neesha Springett 21-17, 21-11; (2)-Shailesh Dagga/Deanne Rodrigues bt Ajitha Ravindran/Ajay Salvi 21-14, 21-9.
Team Championships (Quarterfinals):
Catholic Gym bt Jolly Gym 2-1; MIG (Bandra) bt Matunga Gym 2-0; Chembur Gym bt Goregaon SC 2-0; Bombay Gymkhana ‘A’ bt ASC89 2-1.
(Semifinals): Catholic Gym bt MIG (Bandra) 2-0; Bombay Gymkhana ‘A’ bt Chembur Gym 2-1.