Upcoming shuttler Naishaa Bhatoye continued with her impressive winning streak and handed top seed Riya Arolkar a crushing straight-game defeat to emerge women’s singles champion in the CCI-GMBA Senior District Badminton Championship, jointly organized by the Cricket Club of India (CCI) and Greater Mumbai Badminton Association (GMBA).
The 13-year-old Naishaa playing her first senior-level tournament, showed no sign of nerves and instead stood tall and dominated play against the experienced Riya, and went on to register a fluent 21-3, 21-13 victory in the final played at the refurbished CCI badminton courts.
“I am thrilled to go the distance and emerge champion. I participated in this tournament just to gain experience and I did not expect to play in the final. I had expected to reach at least the pre-quarters, and the success has given me the confidence to play and win against any opponent,” as smiling Naisahaa mentioned.
Naishaa had defeated Anwesha Gowda of Delhi 17-21, 21-14, and 21-16 to win the girls’ under-15 title in the 1st Ashwani Gupta Memorial All-India Sub-Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament 2022 at Punchkula, Haryana in January. She then won the girls’ under-14 crown in the MSSA inter-schools badminton tournament in February and this is her third title win.
However, Riya denied Naishaa from winning another title. Riya along with Viplav Kuwale, the third-seeded pair, overcame the spirited challenge from the unseeded duo of Naishaa and Viraj Kuvale to snatch an exciting 21-16, 20-22, and 21-16 victory and clinch the mixed doubles title.
Later, the number one seeds Anagha Karandikar and Shivani Herlekar bagged the women’s doubles title defeating second seeds Riya Arolkar and Shravani Panchal 21-15, 16-21, and 21-16 in a tense and exciting women’s doubles final.
Earlier, in the women’s singles semifinals, Riya easily defeated third seed Samiaa Shah 21-11, 21-16 and Naishaa sidelined fourth seed Anagha Karandikar posting a 21-17, 21-11 victory.
