G D Birla Memorial Badminton Report

Kushwaha to take on Kadam in Pro final

Vikrant Kushwaha, representing NSCI scored a hard fought victory over Bombay Gymkhana’s Rajan Samant to enter the professional men’s singles final of the 28th G D Birla Memorial Masters Inter-Club Badminton Tournament, hosted by Badminton 45 and Bombay Gymkhana and managed by Badminton Gurukul, at their courts, here, on Saturday.

Kushwaha’s superior stamina and quicker court coverage helped in the longer exchanges and he also kept his nerve towards the end to prevail 21-19, 21-19 and set up a title clash with Ashay Kadam of CCI, who had a relatively easier outing, winning 21-14, 21-19 against NSCI’s Premal Mankar.

Naheed Divecha and Sarita Jetwani kept themselves on course to for a double, entering two doubles semi-finals.  Naheed and Sarita defeated Neha Parmar and Payal Mehta 21-6, 21-2 in the women’s doubles 75+ quarter-finals. Divecha then stepped on to court along with Ayaz Bilawala to outplay Tushar Kulkarni and Leena Kulkarni 15-6, 15-7 in the 80+ combination doubles quarters. Jetwani also made the 80+ combination doubles semis in partnership with Russell Drego, winning 15-9, 15-9 over Rajesh D’Souza and Rupali Gupta, setting up the prospect of Divecha and Jetwani facing each other across the net if they win their next round.

Results:

Professional Men’s Singles Semi Finals

Vikrant Kushwaha bt Rajan Samant – 21-19, 21-19; Akshay Kadam bt Premal Mankar – 21-14, 21-19.

Professional Men’s Doubles Semi Finals

Kalpesh Padekar/Sanjay Golbare bt Anand Maskar/Rishi Kushwaha – 21-19, 21-18, Dinesh Golbare/Manoj Nachnekar bt Ajay Mali/Chetan Bandekar – 21-11, 22-24, 21-17.

Men’s Doubles 45 Round 16

Ayaz Bilawal/Shailesh Daga bt Amrish Ved/Rishi Bansai – 30-16; Ketan Patel/Rajendra Naik bt Gautam Ashar/Suraj Awatramani – 30-22; Ashish Kapila/Fabian bt Dezil Albertb Pinto/Rohit Kaul – 30-25; George Koshy/Rajesh Bhanushali bt Dushyant Bhatia/Rajeev Karia – 30-20; Dhirendra Maurya/Mahesh Chhabria bt Bhaskar Reddy/Justin Joseph – 30-15.

Women’s Doubles 75+ Quarters Finals

Naheed Divecha/Sarita Jetwani bt Neha Parmar/Payal Mehta – 21-6, 21-2; Nilakshi Bhatnagar/Rupali Gupta (got WO against) Komal Chandramani/Saria Kotak; Kiran Shete/Priya Ambekar bt Kavita Jain/Shalini Kandhari – 21-13, 21-8; Nidhi Hosangady/Paromita Phulwaria b tbt Khushboo Sgar/Shabnam Shah – 15-11, 12-14.

XD 80+ Round Quarters Finals

Ayaz Bilawala/Naheed Divecha bt Tushar Kulkarni/Leena Kulkarni – 15-6, 15-7; Hamir Desai/Shalini Kandhari bt Connolly Lewis/Nidhi Hosangady – 15-7, 15-11; Russell Drego/Sareeta Jetwani bt Rajesh D’souza/Rupali Gupta – 15-9, 15-9; Sushant Niddodi/Sejal Sheth bt Sushant Shetty/Nitika Thakur – 11-15, 15-5, 15-14.

Mixed Combination 85+ ROUND 16

Faisal Siddique/Rajan bt Abhiraj Gandhi/Fabian – 30-27; ; Kousambi Roy/Vishal Manchanda bt Hamir Desai/Nazim Dawoodani – 30-14; Anis Badami/Sushant Shetty bt Anand Vithalkar/Vivek Shah – 30-16; Mitesh Arora/Prashant Shah bt Amrish Ved/Rishi Bansal – 30-24; ; Jinesh Mehta/Sachin Mehta bt Deepak Shete/Manish Kumar – 30-16; PM Balakrishna/Siddharth Gupta bt Nitesh Shah/ Sachin Wani – 30-19; Chandrashekhar Pitre/Vijesh Nair bt Niles Jethwani/Shyju Mathew – 30-22.

G D Birla Team Quarter Finals

MCF B bt Vinita Samaj – 2-1; Country Club bt Jolly Gymkhana A – 2-1; Chembur Gymkhana bt Matoshree 2-0, Bombay Gymkhana bt NSCI B – 2-1; NSCI A bt All India Balkanji Bari 2-0; Goregaon Sports Club bt Catholic Gymkhana – 2-0.