Shuttler Rijul Saini triumphs in back-to-back semifinals
August 6, 2023
Rijul Saini won two back-to-back semifinals during the ongoing Chandigarh State Junior and Senior Badminton Championship at the Sector 38 Sports Complex & Centre of Excellence for Badminton today.
In the girls’ U-19 semis, top seed Rijul recorded an easy 21-10 21-15 win over Jasmeet Kaur. She will face Nimar Kaur Virk, who surpassed Tashvi Goel 21-15 21-18, in the final tomorrow. In the women’s semis, Rijul ousted Shagunpreet Kaur 21-17 21-14. In the other semi, Garima Singh defeated Yashica 21-15 21-19.
Akul Malik stunned top seed Vaibhav Mehra 21-7 21-10 in a boys’ U-19 semifinal. He will be up against Krishna Sharma for the title clash. Sharma defeated Piyush Chauhan 21-5 21-14. In the men’s single semis, Dhruv Bansal defeated Mohit Singh 21-18 21-19, and Samarveer upset Kevin Wong 21-12 21-9.
The pair of Anupriya and Raissa Bhanot defeated Ashnoor Kaur and Vanshika 21-18 21-14 to march into the girls’ U-19 doubles final. Nimar Kaur Virk and Rijul won the second semifinal by defeating Jaskamal Kaur and Mihika Thakur 21-11 21-10. The team of Krishna and Rehaan faced a tough resistance from Akul Malik and Vaibhav Mehra before logging a 25-27 21-14 21-19 win. Deepinder Bawa and Samarveer struggled a bit before defeating Atishya Saxena and Sarthak Madaan 23-21 23-21 in the boys’ U-19 doubles semifinal.
In the women’s doubles semis, Garima and Nikita defeated Aarushi Jain and Naina Trehan 21-18 21-12, while Jasmeet Kaur and Kanishka Kalia recorded a comeback 15-21 22-20 21-17 win over Mili Verma and Yashica. The pair of Wong and Mohit won the men’s doubles semifinal by defeating Samarveer and Udayveer 21-14 21-9. In the second semifinal, Pankaj Naithani and Satinder Malik outplayed Krishna Sharma and Rehaan 21-14 18-21 21-11.
The pair of Akul Malik and Kanishka Kalia moved into mixed doubles U-19 final by defeating Suryansh Raghav and Raissa Bhanot 25-23 21-18. Vaibhav Mehra and Mahnoor Kaur also cemented their place in the final by defeating Rehaan and Vanshika 21-16 21-18.
In the mixed doubles (seniors) semis, the pair of Dhruv and Shagunpreet Kaur defeated Anish and Aarushi Jain 21-9 21-9, while Siddharth Jakhar and Yashica ousted Wong and Nikita 21-19 23-21.
