Rashi, Ritika finish second best in All India Junior Badminton

NAGPUR: The giant-killing run of Rashi Lambe and Ritika Thaker-Simran Singhi came to an end as they finished second best at the Oshon All India Ranking Badminton tournament at Hyderabad on Sunday.
In the U-17 girls' singles, Rashi went down to top seed Aakarshi Kashyap of Chhattisgarh 8-21, 8-21 in 25 minutes.
Unseeded Rashi, who knocked out second seed Prashi Joshi and third seed Purva Barve on way to summit clash against Aakarshi, could not continue her magic performance against her Raipur opponent.
Similarly, in the U-17 girls doubles final, Ritika and her Mumbai Suburban partner Simran failed to cross the final hurdle despite giving their best in the 52-minute encounter. The Nagpur-MS pair went down fighting to top seeds K Ashwini Bhatt and UK Mithula in a gruelling three-game final with scores of 15-21, 21-18, 13-21.
Rashi said she could not recover in time to play the final against Aakarshi. "I played very tough matches in the last 4-5 days. It took heavy toll on my body. In the final, I was not able to move properly as the recovery was not proper. Still, I tried my best but it was not enough for me," said Rashi while talking to TOI from Hyderabad.
Ritika said she and Simran were unlucky to finish runners-up. "We had our chances but luck was not on our side. We had put our opponents on the backfoot after winning the second game but could not deliver the knock-out punch. We will work hard and try to beat them next time," said Ritika.
Rashi trains under Kiran Makode. Ritika, a student of CDS School, is being coached by Robin Simon and Ajay Dayal.