Top seed Hubert Miranda of Mumbai Suburban District enjoyed an easy passage to the final defeating Austin D’Rozario of Pune District in two quick games at 21-3, 21-10 in a men 65+ singles semi-finals match of the ‘Badminton 45’ Senior State Veterans Badminton Selection Tournament – 2018, conducted by the Maharashtra Badminton Association and hosted by the Bombay Gymkhana.
Hubert Miranda
In the finals, Miranda will clash with Ashok Sharma, also of Mumbai Suburban District, who prevailed over Madanlal Behetwar of Akola District 21-8, 21-14 in the second semi-final.
In women’s competition, Maria D’Sa of Greater Mumbai District after some initial hesitancy managed to find her rhythm and went on to complete a rather comfortable 21-13, 21-5 victory against Madhu Ahuja of Mumbai Suburban in the women 60+ singles semi-final encounter. In the other semi-final, Kanchan Sane of Pune did not have to get on to the courts as her opponent Madhuri Zarkar from Thane awarded a walkover.
Meanwhile, Greater Mumbai shuttlers Ashutosh Pednekar and Shailesh Daga, the number one and two seeds respectively in the men’s 45+ singles event smoothly progressed to the semi-finals. In quarter-final matches, top seed Pednekar defeated Kousambi Roy of Mumbai Suburban 21-14, 21-8, while Daga tamed Sanjay Dhakite of Raigad District 21-9, 21-3.
Results: Women 60+ singles – Semi-finals: Kanchan Sane (PN) w/o Madhuri Zarkar (TH); Maria D’Sa (GM) bt Madhu Ahuja (MS) 21-13 21-5.
Men 60+ singles – Semi-finals: Vivek Patil (MS) bt Sharad Mahajan (NGP) 21-14 10-21 21-19; Sanjay Parande (PN) bt Mahesh Hegishte (MS) 18-21 21-16 21-11.
Men 65+ singles – Semi-finals: 1-Hubert Miranda (MS) bt Austin D’Rozario (PN) 21-3 21-10; Ashok Sharma (MS) bt Madanlal Behetwar (AKO) 21-8 21-14.
Men 35+ singles – Quarter-finals: Abhishek Patil (NSK) bt Deepak Jaitly (GM) 21-9 21-14; Sarang Vyas (PN) w/o Chintamani Lavand; Aditya Pandya (MS) bt 3-Manoj Vyas (AHM) 21-10 21-15; Sushant Niddodi (MS) bt 2-Vikrant Karanjkar (NSK) 20-22 21-15 21-7.
Men 40+ singles – Quarter-finals: 1-Siddharth Patil (AUR) bt Manish Hadkar (PAL) 21-7 21-14; 4-Sachin Phadke (PN) bt Ashish Khedikar (NGP) 23-21 21-17; 3-Ajay Salvi (PAL) bt Sachin Bharati (GM) 21-11 11-21 21-17; Sandeep Mohan (MS) bt 2-Raghav Bhosale (TH) 28-26, 21-19.
Men 45+ singles – Quarter-finals: 1-Ashutosh Pednekar (GM) bt Kousambi Roy (MS) 21-14 21-8; 4-Vilas Kuvale (GM) bt Pankaj Pathak (LTR) 16-21 21-15 21-12; Rajesh Rochlani (SNG) bt Deeepak kumar Damania (GM) 21-14 21-4; 2-Shailesh Daga (GM) bt Sanjay Dhakite (BOR) 21-9 21-3.