Maharashtra State Olympic Games 2023: Thane, Greater Mumbai made to work hard to reach men's badminton team se

Nagpur, Jan 2: Thane and Greater Mumbai men fought back after losing their opening rubbers while top seeds Nagpur and second seeds Pune brushed aside their respective opponents to reach the semi-finals of the badminton team championships in the Maharashtra State Olympic Games 2023 here on Monday (January 2).

A similar script followed in the women's team quarterfinals, with Nagpur, Pune and Thane registering facile victories while Greater Mumbai women had to dig deep to beat Nashik 2-1.

Top eight teams from the 2022 Inter-district State Championships are vying for top honours in the State Olympic Games and two Under-15 players were the stars of the opening day's action.

Mumbai's Naishaa Bhatoye kept her nerves in the deciding rubber to upset Under-17 state championships runner-up Shravani Walekar 21-23, 21-13, 21-14 to take her team to the women's semi-finals.

Earlier, Anagha Karandikar and Taarini Suri had teamed up to keep Mumbai in the hunt by winning the doubles rubber 21-17, 21-17 against Hetal Vishwakarma and Walekar after Saad Dharmadhikari had given Nashik a 1-0 lead with a 21-17, 21-7 win over Anagha in the first singles.

In Men's competition, Palghar's Dev Ruparelia, 14, registered a facile win over his experienced opponent when he defeated Nihar Kelkar of Mumbai 21-16, 21-19 for a 1-0 lead.

But Mumbai men proved too strong in the two doubles rubbers and second singles as they wrapped up the match 3-1.

Results (Quarterfinals):

Men:

Nagpur beat Jalgaon 2-0 (Nabeel Ahmed bt Shubham Patil 21-13, 21-14; Ajinkya Patharkar/Akshan Shetty bt Dipesh Patil/Shubham Patil 21-13, 21-11; Rohan Gurbani bt Umair Deshpande 21-16, 21-13)

Thane beat Nashik 3-1 (Prathamesh Kulkarni lost to Aditya Mhatre 21-23, 21-15, 21-23; Akshay Raut/Kabir Kanzarkar bt Aditya Mhatre/Vinayak Dandavate 21-9, 21-8; Yash Suryavanshi bt Rushikesh Hole 17-21, 23-21, 21-13; Deep Rambiya/Pratik Ranade bt Aditya Arde/Amit Deshpande 21-15, 21-11.

Greater Mumbai beat Palghar 3-1 (Nihar Kelkar lost to Dev Ruparelia 16-21, 19-21; Nihar Kelkar/Viraj Kuvale bt Aryan Makwana/Mohit Kanani 21-12, 21-8; Yash Tiwari bt Nitesh Kumar 21-11, 21-17; Viplav Kuvale/Yash Tiwari bt Arjun Suresh/Yash Tiwari 21-14, 21-11).

Pune beat Sangli 3-0 (Wasim Sheikh bt Kartik Jeswani 21-10, 21-12; Jairaj Shaktawat/Narendra Gogawale bt Ninad Anyapananwar/Shubham Patil 21-13, 21-15; Arya Bhivpatki bt Ninad Anyapananwar 21-9, 21-9).