Leena Dhapre and Prerana Joshi, both from Pune recorded sensational semi-final victories against the top two seeds Swapnal Chakrabarty of Thane and Urvashi Thapa of Greater Mumbai respectively in the women (40+) singles event of the Maharashtra Badminton Association Senior State Veteran’s Championship – 2018 organised and co-hosted by Badminton 45 and Bombay Gymkhana and played at the gymkhana’s badminton courts on Saturday.
The top-seeded combination of Mayur Tawade (left) of Mumbai Suburb and Saroj Sawant of Ratnagiri clinched the mixed doubles (50+) in the final of the Maharashtra Badminton Association Senior State Veteran’s Championship – 2018
Dhapre played confidently against the number one seed Chakrabarty and showed better control dictated the rallies and eased to a 21-8, 21-5 win in just 19 minutes to charge into the final.
In the second semi-final, Joshi was aggressive from the start and called the shots against an uncharacteristic Thapa who struggled and tamely lost the opening game. Joshi continued to dominate play and went on to take the second game to close out the match winning at 21-1, 21-13 in 22 minutes to set up a title clash with Dhapre.
Later in the evening, the top-seeded combination of Mayur Tawade (Mumbai Suburb) and Saroj Sawant (Ratnagiri) clinched the mixed doubles (50+) title defeating the Mumbai Suburb pairing of Murli Subramaniam and Shakuntala Devnani 21-16, 21-19 in the final.
Meanwhile, Yogesh Padukone of Greater Mumbai and Nagpur’s Kiran Makode scored hard-fought victories in interesting men’s (45+) singles semi-final encounters. Padukone was engaged in a grim battle with compatriot Gautam Laud and managed to pull through winning in three tight games at 21-19, 20-22 and 24-22 in 50 minutes.
The Nagpur shuttler Makode was also involved in a keen tussle with Ajay Salvi of Palghar, but managed to scrape through winning at 21-12, 19-21 and 21-14 in a little over 40 minutes.
Results –
Women’s singles (40+) – Semi-finals: Leena Dhapre (Pune) beat 1-Swapnal Chakrabarty (Thane) 21-8, 21-5; Prerana Joshi (Pune) beat 2-Urvashi Thapa (Gr. Mum) 21-1, 21-13.
Women’s singles (45+) – Semi-finals: 1-Naheed Divecha (Gr. Mum) beat Sanjeevani Mahajan (Pune) 21-6, 21-7; 2-Deepali Joshi (Pune) beat Wrishalee Patil (Jalgaon) 21-16, 21-7.
Men’s singles (40+) – Semi-finals: 1-Siddharth Patil (Aurangabad) beat Nilesh Phansalkar (Satara) 12-21, 21-12, 21-15; 2-Sandeep Mohan (Mum Sub) beat Vikrant Karanjkar (Nashik) 21-18, 18-21, 21-10.
Men’s singles (45+) – Semi-finals: Yogesh Padukone (Gr. Mum) beat Gautam Laud (Gr. Mum) 21-19, 20-22, 24-22; Kiran Makode (Nagpur) beat Ajay Salvi (Palghar) 21-12, 19-21, 21-14.