BAI Series Senior Badminton: Ananya qualifies for main draw

Nagpur, Dec 18

Promising Nagpur shuttler Ananya Durugkar qualified for the main draw in the BAI Series Senior Ranking Badminton tournament at the FireBall Badminton Academy in Chennai on Saturday.

In the fourth and final qualifying round, 16-year-old Ananya shocked sixth seed Nishtha Dembla of Haryana 15-5, 9-15, 15-11 in 40 minutes to make the cut for the women’s singles main draw.

In the third round of the Qualification Group C, Ananya thumped Yatee of Tamil Nadu 15-7, 15-10 in 27 minutes.

In the Qualification Group D, another Nagpur shuttler Chaitali Nayse went down fighting against Keerthi Laxmi of Tamil Nadu in three games. Chaitali won the first game but failed to capitalize on a good start and lost 15-7, 9-15, 7-15 in 30 minutes on Friday.

On Thursday, Chaitali, a student of LAD College, won two rounds. 18-year-old Chaitali defeated Lahari Kotla of Andhra Pradesh 15-13, 15-13 in 25 minutes, while in the second round Nagpur shuttler prevailed over Hema Prithiksha 15-4, 15-3 in 12 minutes.

Ananya Durugkar, who has been training at the Hyderabad-based Suchitra Badminton Academy since March, 2021, will take on Ananya Praveen in the first round of main draw on Sunday.