All India Junior Badminton: Rohan, Malvika, Ritika enter quarters

NAGPUR: City shuttlers stamped their authority in the ongoing 25th Krishna Khaitan Memorial All India Junior Ranking Badminton tournament at Panjab University Hall in Chandigarh on Friday.
Leading from the front were Malvika Bansod, Ritika Thaker and Rohan Gurbani. The talented trio stormed into the quarterfinals in their respective events.
Seventh seed Malvika eased past Nikita Sharma in straight games. The 15-year-old city southpaw dominated from the start to finish against her Haryana opponent on her way to 21-10, 21-13 win.
Malvika will face second seed Prashi Joshi for a spot in the semi-final on Saturday morning.In the U-19 girls' singles, qualifier Malvika gave a big scare to top seed Shikha Gautam before going down fighting in three tough games.
Ritika, however, had to stretch to reach quarters. After losing the first game narrowly at 19, Ritika bounced back strongly to pocked next two games quite easily to set up quarterfinal clash against third seed Purva Barve of Pune.
Earlier in the first round on Thursday, Ritika shocked sixth seed Yeshaswini Nandanoori 21-7, 21-18.
In the U-17 girls' doubles, partnering Simran Singhi they overcame Aadya Parashar and Likhita Srivastava 21-12, 21-6. In the mixed doubles pre-quaters, Ritika and Dhruv Kapila pair upset 7th seeded duo of Sanjay Srivastav and Apeksha Nayak 21-19, 21-8.
Rohan Gurbani was the most impressive of the city brigade. The qualifier continued his glorious run to make it to last eight.
The 14-year-old city lad first ousted Bihar's Akash Thakur 21-19, 21-18 in the morning and later in the evening in the pre-quarters he rallied back to quell the spirited challenge of Ishan Bhatnagar of Chhattisgarh. Ishan, a trainee of Gopichand Academy, won the first game but Rohan produced sensational display to notch up an exciting 19-21, 21-11, 23-21 victory.
However, in the U-19 boys' doubles, city pair Rohan and Gaurav Mithe went down against fifth seeds Sai Pavan Karri and Sri Krishna Sai Kumar Podile.