State badminton: Pune twins lose to Mumbai counterpart
The unique occurrence took place at the pre-quarterfinal stage of Maharashtra junior u-19 state selection badminton tournament 2019 at the Modern Sports Complex on Wednesday
PUNE A rare occurrence saw the team of Saee and Sakshi Shete, twins from Greater Mumbai, take on Saloni and Shravani More, twins from Pune, in the pre-quarterfinal stage of the Maharashtra junior u-19 state selection badminton tournament 2019, at the Modern Sports Complex on Wednesday.
The Shete sisters emerged victorious and advanced to the quarterfinal phase of the tournament. According to Sakshi Shete, the two sisters understand each other really well. They’ve been playing together ever since they were little children and have managed to co-ordinate well and establish a partnership.
This would be difficult to form with any other partner. The determined Shete sisters now aim to play at the national level after participating in various badminton tournaments in the state.
The twins started off their badminton career in the singles category, but eventually realised they would make a good team and started focusing on doubles from the u-13 level.
Saee and Sakshi had to face each other in the singles category at a local tournament last year. The sisters have played two matches against each other with Sakshi winning one, and Saee winning the other, last year.
Surprisingly, this wasn’t the first time the Shete twins have faced the More twins.The two pairs came face-toface at a different tournament, last year, in which the Shete twins again managed to ease past the More sisters.
The More sisters, after being encouraged by their parents, started playing badminton in 2014, trained at PDMBA for four years, and recently moved to Raisons Academy.
They started playing in the singles category, but shifted their attention to the doubles because of the understanding amongst themselves.
Saloni and Shravani have never faced each other, unlike the Shete sisters, but they are also focusing on the doubles state-level tournaments, with a hope to reach the national level soon.
After the loss, the More sisters admitted that they needed to work on their footwork and fitness levels.
The Shete twins, on the other hand, are very pleased with their victory, but are focused on the next game as they were drawn against the prolific team of Riya Habbu and Rhucha Sawant.
Riya Habbu and Rhucha Sawan are favourites.
Saee Shete said, “Growing up together playing badminton has helped us form a very strong partnership. It’s hard to form that bond with someone else.” Sakshi said, “We want to keep improving and keep learning. We are playing state-level tournaments, but we want to play on the national level soon.”
“My parents inspired me to play badminton. I started my journey five years ago and along the way I’ve improved a lot. There are still some things I need to work on, ” said Saloni More, while her sister Shravani said, ”Over the years we have improved and managed to participate in state- level tournaments, but we need to improve our fitness and footwork to reach the next level.”
Dubey and Shah continue to impress as Habbu survives
In the opening set of matches, Hrissha Dubey, from Greater Mumbai, managed to sail past the quick and crafty Thanebased youngster Ramsha Farooqui 21-12, 24-22. Farooqui fought back in the second game and came tantalisingly close to level the match, but eventually Dubey proved to be too strong.
Top seed Riya Habbu’s match against promising Tanishka Deshpande went on for 54 minutes and was the longest match in the girls’ singles pre-quarterfinal round. Habbu won the first game, but Deshpande fought back and won the second game. An intense third game saw Habbu recover well to win the match 21-17, 18-21, 21-15.
Local youngster Yash Shah continued to impress in every category he participated in. In the boys’ singles category, he swept Neelabjo Pal aside in straight sets, winning the match 21-16, 21-11.
Just an hour after his victory, he was involved in a doubles win with Harshal Jadhav. The pair beat Arnav Bhosale and Ved Nanoty 21-8, 21-8.
Harshal Jadhav was involved in another match too as he teamed up with Riya Kunjir to advance to the quarter finals of the mixed doubles category. The local pair eliminated the team of Umme Aymen Shaikh and Gunjan Kumar Singh from Solapur. Riya also won a singles’ match earlier in which she beat Chaitali Nayse from Nagpur 21-8, 21-10.
“The singles game was easy for me. Harshal and I need to work on our defence in the doubles,” said Riya Kunjir, u-19 girls.
“I have to improve in singles. My singles game today shouldn’t have been tough, but I made it tough for myself. I need to work on that,” Harshal Jadhav, u-19 boys