Badminton tournament: Chandigarh shuttler Abhishek Saini enters semis

Chandigarh shuttler Abhishek Saini stormed into the semi-finals in the men’s singles category with a 21-8, 21-17 win over Punjab’s Lakshya Sharma on the second day of the Scott-Edil Invitational Badminton Tournament

Chandigarh shuttler Abhishek Saini stormed into the semi-finals in the men’s singles category with a 21-8, 21-17 win over Punjab’s Lakshya Sharma on the second day of the Scott-Edil Invitational Badminton Tournament on Saturday.

The badminton tournament was hosted by the Mohali District Badminton Association under the aegis of Badminton Federation of India at Shivalik Public School. At the start of the day, Abhishek Saini scored a 15-10, 15-13 win over Harjeev of Himachal Pradesh in the league stage before he outclassed Sharma in the quarter-final match later in the day to keep his title hopes alive in the tournament. (HT PHOTO )

The tournament was hosted by the Mohali District Badminton Association under the aegis of Badminton Federation of India at Shivalik Public School.

At the start of the day, Saini scored a 15-10, 15-13 win over Harjeev of Himachal Pradesh in the league stage before he outclassed Sharma in the quarter-final match later in the day to keep his title hopes alive in the tournament.

In the quarter-final match, which lasted 35 minutes, Saini took advantage of home conditions and used his strong serve and movement across court to claim the opening game 21-8. Sharma struggled in the opening game, but the Punjab shuttler produced some good quality shots in the second game to match Saini. Both players looked aggressive and countered each other before Saini raced away to a 21-17 score line in the second game to emerge as the winner.

Rajasthan’s Shubham Patel rode on his attack to complete a 21-15, 21-14 win over Delhi’s Shaurya Singh to book his place in the men’s singles semi-finals. Patel had scored a 15-7,15-7 win over Delhi’s Ayush Kapoor earlier in the day and carried his fine form in the match against Singh.

In the quarter-final, Patel used deception and drop shots to claim the opening game 21-15. The Rajasthan shuttler then made Singh struggle with his pin-point serves and took the second game 21-14 to enter the semi-finals. He will now face Saini for a place in the final. In the third quarter-final, Delhi’s Arjun Rehani triumphed over Delhi’s Vaibhav Jadhav with a 21-8, 21-18 win.

In women’s singles events, Punjab’s Mahnoor Kaur scored a 21-18, 21-5 win over Delhi’s Namita Pathania to enter the semi-finals. Delhi’s Deepshika Singh prevailed over Chandigarh’s Garima Singh with a 21-17, 21-16 win while Delhi’s Kavya Gandhi scored a 21-15, 21-7 win over Haryana’s Baruni to make her entry into the semi-finals.