CHANDIGARH:Top seed Sanskar Saraswat of Rajasthan and third seed Numair Shaik of Andhra Pradesh will clash for the boys under-16 singles while while Aishani Tiwari Gujarat will take on Rakshitha Sree S. of Tamil Nadu in the girls under-17 singles crown in the 1st Ashwani Gupta Memorial All India Sub Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament-2022 at Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex on Sunday.
The matches in the quarter-finals and semifinals were played on Saturday. In the boys under-17 semi-final, top favourite Sanskar Saraswat got a stiff test in the semi-final. His opponent Pranay Shettigar of Maharashtra waged a spirited battle before going down fighting. Sanskar Saraswat just managed to post a hard-fought win by 21-18 23-25 21-16 in one hour and six minutes.
In the second semi-final, third seed Numair Shaik of Andhra Pradesh also faced stiff resistance from Dhruv Negi of Uttarakhand. In the 54-minute tussle Numair Shaik pipped Dhruv Negi by 21-16 18-21 21-14.
Aishani Tiwari of Gujarat maintained her winning spree as she ousted Rujula Ramu of Karnataka by 21-18 21-15 in the girls under-17 singles semi-final. Her opponent in the final will be Rakshitha Sree S. of Tamil Nadu who defeated Wild Card Unnati Hooda of Haryana by 21-16 21-13 in 25 minutes in the second semi-final.
Earlier in the quarter-final fixture Rakshitha Sree S surprised second seed Andrea Sarah Kurien of Kerala by 21-19 21-13 in 25 minutes. In a tough quarter final match Unnati Hooda of Haryana rallied to beat Shriyanshi Valishetty 18-21 21-16 21-19 in one hour and 11 minutes, the longest match of the tournament so far.
Results
Boys U-17 (q-finals): Sanskar Saraswat [1] bt Satvik Shankar 21-15 21-16, Pranay Shettigar bt Ginpaul S. 21-8 20-22 21-13, Numair Shaik [3] bt Rohan Kumar Anandas Raj Kumar 21-15 21-8, Dhruv Negi bt Bharath Latheesh 21-18 19-21 21-14.
Boys U-17 (s-finals): Sanskar Saraswat [1] (Raj) bt Pranay Shettigar (Mah) 21-18 23-25 21-16, Numair Shaik [3] (AP) bt Dhruv Negi (UTR) 21-16 18-21 21-14. Girls singles U-17 (q-finals): Aishani Tiwari bt Aesha Gandhi [5] 21-14 21-16, Rujula Ramu bt Prashansa Bonam 14-21 21-12 21-12, Unnati Hooda bt Shriyanshi Valishetty 18-21 21-16 21-19, Rakshitha Sree S. bt Andrea Sarah Kurien [2] 21-19 21-13.
Girls singles U-17 (s-finals): Aishani Tiwari (Gujarat) bt Rujula Ramu (Karnataka) 21-18 21-15, Rakshitha Sree S. (TN) bt Unnati Hooda (Haryana) 21-16 21-13.