Nagpur district girls make state junior badminton quarters

NAGPUR: It was a mixed success for Nagpur teams on the opening day of the Maharashtra Junior Inter-District and State Badminton Championship at the Divisional Sports Complex in Aurangabad on Thursday.
While both the U-17 and U-19 boys teams crashed out in the second round, girls moved up and entered the quarterfinals.
Defending champions and top seeds Nagpur U-19 girls had a bye in the first round and will play against Sangli in the quarterfinals on Friday morning.
Second seeds Nagpur U-17 girls thumped Sangli 2-1 and will clash with Kolhapur for a spot in the semifinals.
The U-17 Nagpur boys went down fighting against Kolhapur 1-2 in the second round. Sourabh Kerhalkar won his first singles to put his team ahead. However, Nagpur colts could not win the next two matches and bowed out. The pair of Sourabh and Gaurav Mithe lost doubles closely. In the decider, Gaurav was ahead in both the games but could not beat Nikhil Wadekar of Kolhapur.
In the U-19 boys, Nagpur lost tamely against Sangli.
Results (Round of 16)
U-17 boys: Nagpur lost to Kolhapur 1-2 (Souarbh Kerhalkar bt Karan Jadhav 21-16, 21-16; Souarbh Kerhalkar-Gaurav Mithe lost to Karan Jadhav-Nikhil Wadekar 18-21, 19-21; Gaurav Mithe lost to Nikhil Wadekar 20-22, 24-26).
U-19 boys: Nagpur lost to Sangli 0-2 (Suyash Deshmukh lost to Prathamesh Mehetre 13-21, 16-21; Sourabh Kerhalkar-Suyash Deshmukh lost to Prathamesh Mehetre-Rishikesh Pathak 16-21, 16-21).
U-17 girls: Nagpur bt Sangli 2-1.