Navi Mumbai : Chhattisgarh duo of Siddharth Pratap Singh and Deepali Gupta emerged men’s and women’s singles champions in the open events in the West Zone inter-state badminton championships, organised by BOR (Badminton Organisation of Raigad) and hosted by the D.Y. Patil Sports Academy at their Stadium’s badminton hall, at Nerul on Friday.
The inter-state champion Maharashtra’s Top players like women’s top-seeded Neha Pandit, Mudra Dhainje, Vaishnavi Iyer and men’s Harsheel Dani, as well as MP’s junior India No.1 Shriyanshi Pardeshi, all opted out of the open events as they received direct entries for the Nationals.
This gave the lesser lights from other states like Siddharth and Deepali (from Chhatisgarh), Pranjal Chimulkar (from Goa) and Aryamann Tandon (Gujarat), to show their mettle. And did it in style by clinching singles titles in their respective categories.
For hosts Maharashtra, the only face saving grace was the hard-fought victory of Nishad Dravid and Akshay Raut in the men’s doubles final. However, it was quite a tough going for them as they were fully stretched by the Goa pair of Adrian George and Samir Abbasi before they triumphed 21-13, 18-21, 21-14.
