City all set to host BWF International Challenge from Sept 13

Addressing media persons president of Maharashtra Badminton Association (MBA) Arun Lakhani said the event has evoked a good response as around 560 players' entries (112 each event) have been received from 12 countries including India (347), Japan (6), Malaysia, Maldives (10), Uganda (4), Zambia (3), Zimbabwe (1), United States of America (2), Canada (1), Thailand (11), Sri Lanka (5) and UAE (1).

The events in the tournament will include men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles. The top seeded participants in the events are Kiran George (world No. 64) in the men’s singles, Malvika Bansod (world No. 47) in women’s singles, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila (world No. 35) in men’s doubles, Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto (world No. 41) in mixed Doubles and K. Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam (world No. 53) in the women’s doubles.

The emerging stars of the Nagpur Badminton Malvika Bansod, Ritika Thaker, Ananya Durugkar, Hriday Deshmukh, Shruti Chokhandre, Ajinkya Patharkar, Simran Singhi and Akshan Shetty will be seen amongst others showcasing their game.

The officials from BWF including Girish Natu from Pune, Badminton Asia, BAI and MBA will be present in Nagpur for the six-day tournament.

Minister for Rural Development, Medical Education, Sports and Youth Welfare, Maharashtra State Girish Mahajan will inaugurate the tournament in the presence of MLC Shrikant Bhartiya and BAI secretary Sanjay Mishra.

Soon after the inauguration, qualifying rounds will be played. The main draw matches will commence after the first couple of days.

The six-day tournament will conclude on September 18, Sunday. union minister Nitin Gadkari will be the chief guest while BJP stte president Chandrashekhar Bawankule will be the guest of honor.

MBA President Arun Lakhani said, “ “We are delighted to host yet another high standard tournament in Nagpur. This is a great opportunity for our players to get an international exposure in their very own country. Those who had to miss the internationals earlier due to travel and financial constraints, will now be able to compete with the world talent to up their game and to gain international points to add to their ranking. We are looking forward to the similar historic response to this tournament from Nagpurians as we received for the Senior Nationals in 2017,

NDBA secretary Mangesh Kashikar, NDBA member Gurdeep Singh Arora and other NDBA members were also present during the press conference.