Nagpur's Ritika, Nikkita, and Nehal in doubles final, Sankalp in men's singles semis
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Nagpur: A day after Nagpur shuttlers scripted a historic gold and bronze medal in the Nandu Natekar Memorial Senior State Inter-District Team Badminton Championship at Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, the city's doubles specialists Ritika Thaker, Nikkita Joseph, and Nehal Gosavi made it to the mixed and women's doubles finals.
In the individual events of the senior state championships on Tuesday, Ritika paired up with Thane's Depp Rambhiya to enter the mixed doubles final, while the Nagpur duo of Nikkita and Nehal confirmed their berth in the women's doubles title clash. In the men's singles, Sankalp Gurala kept the Nagpur flag flying high when he made it to the semifinals.
In a thrilling mixed doubles semifinal, the Nagpur-Thane duo of Ritika and Deep rallied from a game down to surprise the seeded pair of Anam Noushad and Sonali Mirkhelkar 17-21, 21-18, 21-18.
The exciting semifinal lasted for over an hour. In the title clash, they will face the challenge of top seeds Aman Farogh and Anagha Karandikar.
Earlier in the women's doubles semifinal, the Nagpur duo of Nikkita and Nehal got the better of Ananya Gadgil and Sanika Patankar 21-13, 13-21, 21-15 to set the summit clash with the second-seeded pair of Shruti Mundada and Tanishka Deshpande.
In the men's singles, third-seeded Sankalp Gurala of Nagpur outclassed Suveer Pradhan in straight games 21-17, 26-24 to enter the men's singles semifinal, where he will face top seed Varun Kapur.
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