Dani finishes runner-up in Turkey international badminton tournament

NAGPUR: Harsheel Dani achieved one of the biggest performances in his life by finishing runner-up in the Turkey International Badminton tournament which concluded at Mersin in Turkey on Sunday. The giant-killing run of the unseeded Dani was halted by top seed Marc Zwiebler of Germany in an absorbing men’s singles final. The world No. 19 overcame a tough challenge from Dani, who is ranked way below at 249, to register a 21-8, 15-21, 21-7 win in 40 minutes.
The nineteen-year-old Dani caused two big upsets in the tournament to storm into the final. In the quarterfinal, Dani shocked sixth seed Dmytro Zavadsky of Ukraine 21-19, 21-16, while in the semis Dani rallied back strongly to stun eighth seed Jacob Maliekal of South Africa 16-21, 21-17, 21-7 in 50 minutes.
The tall southpaw from Mumbai blamed two gruelling matches on Saturday for his defeat in the final. “I played quarterfinal and semis within a span of few hours on Saturday. It took lot out of me. My legs were stiff and I was not able to move freely in the first game. I adjusted myself better in the second game and won it to level the scores 1-1. However in the decider, he suddenly increased the pace of the game which I could not handle,” Dani told TOI from Turkey.
A trainee of Uday Pawar Badminton Academy at Goregaon Sports Club, Dani termed his performance in Turkey as satisfactory and said he is feeling more confident after stretching former world’s top-5 player to three games.
“I was not nervous before the final. In fact, I was very excited to play Zwiebler. He is a quality player and I wanted to test myself against him. After giving him a good fight, I believe I can challenge the other good players in the circuit now,” said Dani, an employee of BPCL. The former national U-19 champion will next play All India senior ranking tournament in Bareilly next week.
"I am thankful to my coach Uday Pawar Sir, BPCL, GoSports Foundation and my parents for all the support," said Dani.