Jaidev Menon, Yash Tiwari storm into semi-finals

Mumbai: Jaidev Menon and Yash Tiwari, both enjoyed a very successful day. They recorded convincing quarter-final victories to storm into Men’s singles penultimate round of the Cricket Club of India (CCI) Greater Mumbai District Badminton Championship 2018, jointly organised by the CCI and the Greater Mumbai Badminton Association (GBMA) and played at the CCI badminton courts.

In quarter-final encounters, unseeded Jaidev mixed caution with aggression to send third seed Mishil Shah packing off. Jaidev showed positive intent from the start and managed to clinch a close first game before dominating play in the second as he went on to wrap up the match, coasting to a 21-17, 21-9 victory.

Meanwhile, fourth-seeded Yash was in complete control and called the shots against the unseeded Deepak Jaitely and easily won the first game. Later, he faced quite a stiff challenge from the experienced Jaitely but managed to win the second game over extra points to seal a 21-10, 22-20 win and move into the semi-finals.

Later, Jaidev and Yash combined effectively to upset the second-seeded pairing of Nigel D’Sa and Mangrish Palekar in a Men’s doubles quarter-finals match. Jaidev and Yash produced a solid fighting display against the experienced duo of Nigel and Mangrish romping to a hard earned 22-20, 22-20 victory.

There was more success for Jaidev as he entered the semi-final round of the Boys’ under-19 event. The top-seeded Jaidev tamed Vikrant Ninave 21-10, 21-7 in a one-sided quarter-final encounter. Second-seeded Siddhesh Raut also advanced to the penultimate round defeating Rahil Parikh 21-11, 21-13.

In a women’s singles quarter-final match, second-seeded Kareena Madan breezed past Shalaka Kambli posting a 21-2, 21-4 win to book her place in the semi-finals. In other matches, Samiaa Shah prevailed over Nidhi Patel 21-7, 21-8 and Pooja Kachare defeated Sneha Mhadlekar 21-8, 21-11 to also move into the last four round.