THE trio of Nabeel Ahmed, Harshit Nerkar and Sanidhya Khandare survived scares in the Round of 16 to reach men’s singles quarter-finals of Raisoni Foundation’s Yonex-Sunrise GH Raisoni Memorial Vidarbha-Level Badminton Tournament underway at Subhedar Badminton Hall, RTMNU Campus, Ravi Nagar on Sunday. The tournament is being hosted by Raisoni Sports and Cultural Foundation and Nagpur District Badminton Association under the auspices of Maharashtra Badminton Association. Nabeel, Harshit and Sanidhya all dropped a game each while moving ahead in the tourney. It will be an all Nagpur affair in the men’s singles quarters as three players — one from Buldana and two from Chandrapur were ousted in the pre-quarters.

 

Shashank Kulal and Jeeva Pillai are the only two players who have made it to the quarters in men’s singles as well as doubles albeit with different partners. Three of the four women’s doubles quarter-final matches were decided with a match. Ananya Durugkar-Nehal Gosavi; Janvi Kaishalwar-Vaidehi Gokhe and Gauri Moroney-Tejaswi Harkare all booked semis berths on walk overs. Results (MS R16): Nabeel Ahmed, NGP, bt Rohan Singh, NGP, 16-14, 12-15, 15-10; Harshit Nerkar, NGP, bt Shreyash Salunke, NGP, 15-13, 12-15, 15-10; Adityasingh Chouhan, NGP, bt Arnav Nimbalkar, BULD, 15-8, 15-12; Sanidhya Khandare, NGP, bt Prithvi Haritwal, NGP, 21-19, 7-15, 15-8; Chunharmeet Sokhi, NGP, bt Aman Sharma, CHA, 15-9, 15-3; Shashank Kulal, NGP, bt Aryan Awale, NGP, 15-10, 15-8; Jeeva Pillai, NGP, bt Nikhil Singh, CHA, 15-9, 15-6; Gandhar Nawale, NGP, bt Krishna Singh, NGP, 15-12, 15-13.