Senior badminton: Top seeds Mahajan, Joshi crash out in semis

Unseeded Naheed Divecha of Greater Mumbai District caused a major upset and advanced into the Women 45+ singles final of the 'Badminton 45' Senior State Veterans Badminton Selection Tournament 2018 here today.
In the semi-finals, Divecha defeated top seed Sanjeevani Mahajan of Pune District in straight games. Divecha was aggressive from the start and called the shots to send the fancied Pune shuttler packing by coasting to a 21-7, 21-5 victory, a media release said today.
The tournament is being conducted by the Maharashtra Badminton Association and hosted by the Bombay Gymkhana.
Second seed Archana Singh, of Mumbai Suburban District, also fell by the wayside, losing to Pune District's unseeded player Deepali Joshi in two games.

The Pune shuttler displayed better control and consistency to come through against Archana by posting a 21- 13, 21-13 victory in the second semi-final and book a place in the final.
The top seeds in the men's 50+ singles category, Murli Subramaniam of Mumbai Suburban and Pune District's Suresh Ayyappan, took different routes to the final.

In the semi-final encounters, the No. 1 seed quite comfortably got past Naval Bir Kumar of Greater Mumbai, winning at 21-9, 21-6. Second seed Ayyappan had quite a fight on hand before he managed to scrape past Gurmeet Singh Matharu of Aurangabad by clinching a hard-fought 21-17, 12-21, 21-15 verdict to progress to the summit round.

Results:
Women 35+ singles - Semi-finals: Palkan Dave (MS) bt Rekha Hegde (TH) 21-3 21-7; Linta Mathew (MS) bt Komal Chandiramani (TH) 21-15 21-18; Quarter-finals: Rekha Hegde (TH) bt Deepti Shetty (MS) 21-8 21-5; Komal Chandiramani (TH) bt Pranali Vid (MS) 21-4 21-4; Linta Mathew (MS) bt Bhavna Doultani (TH) 22-24 21-12 21-10.
Women 40+ singles Semi-finals: Swapnal Chakrabarty (TH) bt Ajita Ravindran (BOR) 21-13 21-12; Urvashi Thapa (GM) bt Farogh Mukadam (TH) 18-21 21-16 14-5 Ret.; Quarter-finals: Ajita Ravindran (BOR) bt Baby Pait (MS) 21-10 21-3; Swapnal Chakrabarty (TH) bt Neelam Chauhan (MS) 21-10 21-10; Urvashi Thapa (GM) bt Archana Mehta (MS) 21-2 21-1; Farogh Mukadam (TH) bt Purnima Deshmukh (MS) 16-21 21-19 21-15.

Women 45+ singles Semi-finals: Naheed Divecha (GM) bt 1-Sanjeevani Mahajan (PN) 21-7 21-5; Deepali Joshi (PN) bt 2-Archana Singh (MS) 21-13 21-13; Quarter-finals: 1-Sanjeevani Mahajan (PN) bt Vasumathi Sethuraman (MS) 21-15 21-11; Deepali Joshi (PN) bt Nilakshi Sinha (GM) 21-9 21-9; 2-Archana Singh (MS) bt Kavita Arun (MS) 21-17 21-15; Naheed Divecha (GM) bt Swati Deshpande (TH) 21-4 21-5.
Men 50+ singles Semi-finals: 1-Murli Subramaniam (MS) bt Naval Bir Kumar (GM) 21-9 21-6; 2-Suresh Ayyappan (PN) bt Gurmeet Singh Matharu (AUR) 21-17 12-21 21-15;
Quarter-finals: 1-Murli Subramaniam (MS) bt Avadhut Joshi (PN) 21-4 21-7; Naval Bir Kumar (GM) bt Atul Kulkarni (AUR) 17-21 21-12 21-1; Gurmeet Singh Matharu (AUR) bt Ajay Srivastava (MS) 15-21 21-18 21-9; 2-Suresh Ayyappan (PN) bt Prashant Mukherjee (BOR) 21-19 19-21 21-13.