Aalisha Naik went on to capture triple crown, winning the girls under-17, under-15 and under-13 singles titles on the concluding day of the Mumbai District badminton selection tournament at Goregaon Sports Club.
Aalisha defeated Anamika Singh (22-20) in the under-17, but was taken the full distance by Gauri Kadam, before she triumphed (21-16, 9-21, ,21-11) in the under-15 , but in her under-13 age group she was simply too good for Siya Singh (21-15, 21-6) in the final.
Unseeded Sarthak Rokade, who was in line for a double, won the under-19 singles (21-16, 21-15), but against the speed and power of top seed Sushant Ravva, he went down fighting in three pulsating games (10-21, 21-16, 21-15).
The men’s and women’s singles finals were rather tame affairs with the men’s top seed Kaushal Dharmamer as well as women’s top seed Kalpita Sawant establishing their domination over their respective opponents. Kaushal thrashed second seeded Gaurav Rege 21-11, 21-7, but Kalpita did have to struggle a bit against stylish lefthander Pooja Devlekar before Kalpita triumphed 21-14 21-17.
