This story is from August 25, 2014

Dey, Pandit emerge Maharashtra state badminton champions

Whether it was Sunday or any other day, it was only Subhankar Dey as far as state badminton is concerned.
Dey, Pandit emerge Maharashtra state badminton champions
LATUR: Whether it was Sunday or any other day, it was only Subhankar Dey as far as state badminton is concerned.
The top seed from Pune lived up to his reputation and form to pocket yet another men's singles title to complete a glorious hat-trick on the concluding day of the Maharashtra State Senior Badminton Championship at the Dayanand College Indoor Stadium on Sunday.
The 21-year-old Dey outsmarted his opponent Kabir Kanzarkar in the final with utmost ease to extend his dominance.
Southpaw Kanzarkar stated in an aggressive fashion and was leading by 5 points in the first game which caught his fancied opponent completely off-guard. The Thane teenager used powerful smashes and deceptive dribbles to good effect to lead initially.
However, once Dey got the measure of his rival, he adopted different tactics. The game changed on its head once Dey started to hit the shuttles on the right spots with absolute perfection.
After trailing by five points, Dey caught Kanzarkar at around 15 and then raced to win the first game 21-16.
Dey, India No. 4, totally dominated the second game (21-8) and literally toyed with his opponent with a right mixture of aggression and control.
“Kabir surprised me with his aggressive style of play. However, after few initial minutes, his game became too predictable. I then slowed down the pace of the game and used different strokes to unsettle him,” said Dey after his third title in a row.

Incidentally it was Latur where he grabbed his maiden title in 2012 beating Sarang Lakhanee. He retained it in Parbhani last year.
Neha Pandit too lived up to her top billing to regain her title after several years. The 27-year-old Pandit halted the giant-killing run of Nagpur teenager Vaishnavi Bhale in the summit clash.
Bhale, who lost to Pandit in the team championship final on Friday, put up a brave fight to promise a close match. However, experienced Pandit used her half smashes and cross court drops to her advantage to shatter the hopes of Bhale, who got a huge crowd support from the packed house as being underdog.
Pandit, who survived three match points to beat Mudra Dhainje in the semifinal earlier in the day, was satisfied with her third state title.
"Vaishnavi played really well. She is just 18 and has plenty of time to learn. Semifinal was a big scare and I managed to win from 17-20 down in the third game," said Pandit, who is ranked eighth in India.
Latur MLA Amit Deshmukh, Bombay High Court Judge Anand Nirgude, MBA president Pradeep Gandhe and vice-president Ashish Bajpai distributed the prizes.
Results:
(Finals) Men's singles: 1-Subhankar Dey bt Kabir Kanzarkar 21-16, 21-8.
Women's singles: 1-Neha Pandit bt Vaishnavi Bhale 21-15, 21-11.
Men's doubles: 4-Kabir Kanzarkar-Akshay Raut bt 1-Abhidnya Sawant-Prasad Shetty 21-14, 21-14.
Women's doubles: 1-Manasi Gadgil-Mudra Dhainje bt Shruti Mundada-Riya Pillai 21-19, 21-11.
Mixed doubles: Sameer Bhagwat-Revati Devasthale bt Varun Khanwalkar-Shruti Mundada 21-13, 14-21, 21-16.
(Semifinals) Men's singles: 1-Subhankar Dey bt Anmol Behrani 21-15, 21-7; Kabir Kanzarkar bt Abhishek Sadanand Kulkarni 23-21, 21-8.
Women's singles: 1-Neha Pandit bt 4-Mudra Dhainje 18-21, 21-17, 22-20; Vaishnavi Bhale bt 2-Riya Pillai 21-16, 16-21, 23-21.
Men's doubles: 1-Abhidnya Sawant-Prasad Shetty bt 3-Prashant Bahatre-Abhishek Sanjay Kulkarni 21-18, 20-22, 21-17; 4-Kabir Kanzarkar-Akshay Raut bt Subhankar Dey-Bishal Das 19-21, 21-11, 21-18.
Women's doubles: 1-Manasi Gadgil-Mudra Dhainje bt Riya Pawar-Rucha Kadam 21-13, 21-10; Shruti Mundada-Riya Pillai bt 2-Bhakti Dahasahasra-Himanshi Pandey 21-13, 21-10.
Mixed doubles: Varun Khanwalkar-Shruti Mundada bt 1-Nishad Dravid-Manasi Gadgil 13-21, 21-12, 21-10; Sameer Bhagwat-Revati Devasthale bt 2-Abhishek Sanjay Kulkarni-Riya Pillai 21-14, 25-27, 21-17.
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