NAGPUR: India No. 10 and city's doubles specialist Ritika Thaker did the star turn as Nagpur teams, in both the men and women section, booked their final berths in the Maharashtra state senior inter-district badminton championship at Thane on Monday.
In the semifinals, Nagpur women rallied splendidly to get the better of Greater Mumbai 2-1, as their men's counterpart prevailed over hosts Thane 3-1.
After Nehal Gosavi's stunning 16-21, 8-21 loss to Mumbai's Naishaa Bhatoye in the opening tie, Ritika had to play back-to-back doubles and singles outings. Maharashtra's best doubles pair of Ritika and Simran Singhi took just 15 minutes to bring parity for Nagpur. In the doubles tie, the duo of Ritika and Simran outclassed Anagha Karandikar and Samaia Shah 21-10, 21-8.
Within no time, Ritika took to the courts for the deciding contest. She needed 25 minutes to make light work of Riya Arolkar 21-7, 21-14 and lead Nagpur to the final.
Earlier in the quarterfinals, Nagpur women blanked Nashik 2-0 and the men's outfit outplayed Sangli 3-0.
RESULTS (All Semifinals)
WOMEN: Nagpur bt Greater Mumbai 2-1 (Nehal Gosavi lost to Naishaa Bhatoye 16-21, 8-21; Ritika Thaker-Simran Singhi bt Anagha Karandikar-Samaia Shah 21-10, 21-8; Ritika Thaker bt Riya Arolkar 21-7, 21-14)
MEN: Nagpur bt Thane 3-1 (Nabeel Ahmed bt Yash SUryavanshi 21-15, 21-12, Rohan Gurbani bt Pratik Ranade 21-16, 21-11; Ajinkya Patharkar-Sourabh Kerhalkar lost to Akshay Raut-Kabir Kanzarkar 16-21, 8-21; Sankalp Gurala bt Sarthak Rokade 21-18, 21-13)
