Top-seeded Dhruv Rawat, Malvika Bansod sail smoothly into second round
February 6, 2018, Delhi
Top-seeded Dhruv Rawat (Uttarakhand) and Malvika Bansod (Maharashtra) made light of the challenge of their respective opponents in the boys and girls’ singles opening round matches when the badminton competition in the inaugural Khelo India School Games got under way at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here today.
“I told myself that there was no room for complacency and that the match was not won until the last point went in my favour,” said Dhruv Rawat after beating wild-card entrant Subanshu Tiwari (Arunachal Pradesh) 21-5, 21-3 in a mere 17 minutes. “I remembered the Asian Badminton Championship match (against Taufik Hidayat Ilmi) when I lost because I assumed a win after taking the first game.”
Nagpur’s Malvika Bansod, fresh from winning a senior all-India ranking crown, took 20 minutes to book her pre-quarterfinal berth with a 21-10, 21-7 win against Tamil Nadu’s V Sarumarthi. Gayathri Gopichand, seeded third in the girls’ draw, pulled out as she is recovering from an injury. Rajasthan’s Anuska secured a walk-over into the round of 16.
Results (first round, seedings in brackets)
Boys singles: (1) Dhruv Rawat (Uttarakhand) beat Subhanshu Tiwari (Arunachal Pradesh) 21-5, 21-3; Govind Krishna (Kerala) beat Anirudh Khushwaha (Gujarat) 21-19, 21-19; (6) Koya Sai Charan (Telangana) beat Sourav (Assam( 21-7, 21-10; Anush Rav Garg (Haryana) w.o. George Kherban (Meghalaya); R Vikas Prabhu (Tamil Nadu) w.o. (3) Iman Sonowal (Assam); Laa Takum (Arunachal Pradesh) beat Aryaman Goel (Madhya PradesH0 21-6, 21-14; (7) Aakash Yadav (Delhi) beat Sudanshu Bure (Maharashtra( 21-9, 21-8; Rajan Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) beat Pruthvi K Roy (Karnataka) 22-20, 21-8.
Girls singles: (1) Malvika Bansod (Maharashtra) beat V Sarumathi (Tamil Nadu) 21-10, 2-17; Varsha Venkatesh (Kerala) beat Shejal Joshi (Meghalaya) 21-7, 2-13; (8) Mansi Singh (Uttar Pradesh) beat L Mamakiya (Andhra Pradesh) 21-6, 21-2; Nikita (Haryana) beat Taku Neha (Arunachal Pradesh) 21-5, 2-15; (4) Unnati Bisht (Uttarakhand) beat Amrit Bashini (Puducherry) 21-8, 21-3; Debahuti Lahon (Assam) beat Sheetal Joshi (Meghalaya) 21-9, 21-5; (6) Trisha Hegde (Karnataka) beat Mansi Yadav (Delhi) 21-10, 21-9; Tanishka Das Pandey (Maharashtra) beat BB Bimby (Tamil Nadu) 21-11, 21-11.
