Top seeds Dharmamer, Laa advance to second round
Maharashtra’s Kaushal Dharmamer, the top seed, staved off a spirited challenge from Ribya Jokom of Arunachal Pradesh en route to a 21-19, 21-17 win in a boy’s under-19 singles first round match of the 3rd Gautam Thakkar Memorial All India Junior Badminton Tournament 2014, hosted by the GTMBA (Gautam Thakkar Memorial Badminton Association) and Bombay Gymkhana and being played at the Bombay Gymkhana courts on Thursday.
Second seed Talar Laa also from Arunachal Pradesh marched into the second round with a convincing 21-16, 21-14 victory against Kartikey Gulshan Kumar in another first round match.
In the girl’s under-19 competition, the top two seed Reshma Karthik representing Air India and Maharashtra’s Reevati Devasthale, in contrasting fash- ion won their first round ties. Reshma encountered a strong fight from Lalita Dahiya from Haryana before pulling through in three long games at 21-19, 20-22, 21-11, while Revati had things very much under control as she cruised to a fluent 21-17, 21-13 win over Anshu Sharma of Madhya to progress to the second round.
Tanishq M. of Andhra Pradesh joined Reshma and Reevati in the second.
The Andhra girl worked hard to put it across Maharashtra’s Mugdha Agrey in three games at 21-9, 17-21, 2113.
Meanwhile, unseeded Rahul Bhardhvaj B.M. of Karnataka scored an upset win over seventh seed Bodhit Joshi of Uttarakhand in a boy’s under-17 singles match. The Karnatak lad prevailed at 21-19, 21-12.