Top seed Subramaniam reaches semis

Top seed Murli Subramaniam of Mumbai Suburban District easily defeated Avadhut Joshi of Pune District to storm into the semi-finals of the men's 50+ singles category in the 'Badminton 45' Senior State Veterans Badminton Selection Tournament 2018.
The tournament was conducted by the Maharashtra Badminton Association and hosted by Bombay Gymkhana.
Subramaniam was in complete control during the quarter-final match against Joshi and cruised to a 21-4, 21-7 victory, a media release said today.
Second-seed Suresh Ayyappan of Pune District had to fight hard before he managed to overcome Prashant Mukherjee of Raigad District in three games, winning 21-19, 19-21, 21-13 to book his place in the semi-finals.

In other quarter-final matches, Greater Mumbai District's Naval Bir Kumar recovered brilliantly after dropping the first game to put it across Atul Kulkarni of Aurangabad District, winning 17-21, 21-12, 21-1. However, Gurmeet Singh Matharu of Aurangabad enjoyed a good outing and advanced to the last four as he overcame Ajay Srivastava of Mumbai Suburban District 15-21, 21-18, 21-9 .
In women's 50+ singles semi-finals encounter, top seed Saroj Sawant of Ratnagiri District defeated Surekha Satam of Mumbai Suburban District 21-7, 21-10 to set up a title clash with second seed Arpita Jhaveri of Greater Mumbai who scored a 21-7, 21-11 win against Balvinder Sapra of Mumbai Suburban in the second semi-final.

Results: Men's 40+ singles (R-16): 1-Siddharth Patil (AUR) bt Gautam Laud (GM) 21-15 19-21 21-14; Manish Hadkar (PAL) bt Subash Balakrishnan (TH) 21-11 21-6; 4-Sachin Phadke (PN) bt Shrikant Jambhulkar (NGP) 21-9 21-10; Ashish Khedikar (NGP) bt Mohit Kheur (PN) 20-22 21-18 22-20; Sachin Bharati (GM) bt Rakesh Totla (NGP) 21-10 21-18; 3-Ajay Salvi (PAL) bt Lalitkumar Khonde (NGP) 21-19 21-5; Sandeep Mohan (MS) bt Praveen Moolethara (PAL) 21-14 21-5; 2-Raghav Bhosale (TH) bt Pravin Dabare (AMR) 21-11 21-10.

Men's 50+ singles (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.

Womens 50+ singles (semi-finals): 1-Saroj Sawant (RTG) bt Surekha Satam (MS) 21-7 21-10; 2-Arpita Jhaveri (GM) bt Balvinder Sapra (MS) 21-7 21-11.
Womens 40+ singles (R-16): Baby Pait (MS) bt Sweta Rai (MS) 21-15 18-21 21-10; Neelam Chauhan (MS) bt Sayali Parab (GM) 21-13 21-15; Archana Mehta (MS) w/o Swati Deshpande (TH); Urvashi Thapa (GM) bt Avniee Thakkarr (MS) 21-4 21-11.