Team Herald
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MAPUSA: Advait Balakrishnan and Owais Tahasildar, Karthikeyan N and Shaurya Naik, Aswin Mannambalath and Shaheen C K, and Soham Naik and Yousuf Shaikh stormed into the U-19 Boys Doubles semi-finals of the State Badminton Ranking Tournament for Sub Juniors and Juniors, organised by Mapusa Shuttlers under the aegis of Goa Badminton Association at the indoor sports complex, Peddem, here, on Saturday.
Advait and Owais edged past Aloisius Rodrigues and Sanand Nair in straight games 21-18, 21-18. Karthikeyan and Shaurya displayed great teamwork to down fourth seeds Devaj Vaingankar and Tanish Karekar 21-15, 21-19. Aswin and Shaheen eased past Devansh Sakpal and Vansh Khedkar 21-13, 21-13, while Soham and Yousuf overpowered Sudhanva Udupa and Vansh Natekar 21-15, 21-5.
In the Mixed Doubles U-19 category, Shubham Swami and Synnovia D’Souza, Arjun Bhagat and Aarohi Coutoncar, and Shaheen C K and Ritika Chelluri advanced to the semi-finals with dominant performances.
Shubham and Synnovia outplayed Devansh Sakpal and Shivanjali Thite 21-16, 21-15. Arjun and Aarohi overcame the third-seeded pair of Rutav Kanabar and Minoshka Pereira with a confident 21-17, 21-8 win. Meanwhile, Shaheen and Ritika demolished second seeds Ved Shetye and Lakshita Sawal 21-4, 21-3 in one of the most one-sided matches of the day.
In the U-19 Boys singles, Darpan Rawat, Vihaan Naik, Sanand Nair, Harsh Mulik, Devansh Sakpal, Rutav Kanabar, Devaj Vaingankar and Shaurya Naik all booked their places in the main draw with impressive victories.
Vihaan defeated Shaan C K 15-8, 15-13 and Shubham Swami 15-6, 15-10. Harsh battled past Vansh Natekar in a tight three-setter 15-10, 11-15, 15-9 after a comfortable win over Andrei Dias.
Devansh dominated Sudhanva Udupa 15-6, 15-7, while Shaurya advanced with a solid 15-9, 15-10 win over Ved Shetye.