Cherish to vie for Mumbai badminton triple crown

Mumbai, Aug 17 (IANS) Cherish D'Souza is in line for a triple crown, having made the finals of the girls under-19, under-17 and under-15 singles in the Mumbai Suburban District Badminton Championships at Andheri's Celebration Club Friday.

Cherish won both her under-19 and under-17 matches in straight games, but was taken the distance in the under-15 semifinals by Stuti Agarwal.

Himanshi Pandey caused an upset by defeating top seed Shrey Donadkar with a 21-11, 21-12 win in the girls under-19 semis and hopes to stop Cherish from running away with the under-19 title.

Kalpita Sawant is also vying for a double crown having made the final in the girls under-17 and under-15 singles.

Sai Dinesh Reddy, the boys under-15 top seed, had to fight all the way before he beat Varun Padhye 17-21, 21-5, 28-26 in the semifinals and then again dropped a game to Rohan Kadam before winning the under-17 singles final with a 21-23, 21-18, 21-11 win.

However, Sai have it easy beating Sharang Garud 21-10, 21-6 and will take on Aditya Shettigar, who won 21-18, 24-22 against Devesh Dharmarajan,in the boys under-15 final.

Results: Girls U-19 singles (semifinals): Cherish D'Souza bt Kairavi Thakore 21-14, 21-19; Himanshi Pandey bt Shreya Donadkar 21-11, 21-12.

Boys U-19 singles (semifinals): Sushrut Karmarkar bt Siddhesh Mudddbhatkar 21-18, 21-19; Likhit Bangera bt Ritesh Malaney 21-14, 21-12.

Boys U-17 singles (Final): Sai Dinesh Reddy bt Rohan Kadam 21-23, 21-18, 21-11.

Girls U-17 singles (semifinals): Cherish D'Souza bt Nivedita Rao 21-16, 22-20; Kalpita Sawant bt Kairavi Thakore 21-17, 21-14.

Boys U-15 singles (semifinals): Aditya Shettigar bt Devesh Dharmarajan 21-18, 24-22; Sai Dinesh Reddy bt Sharang Garud 21-10, 21-6.

Girls U-15 singles (semifinals): Kalpita Sawant bt Nivedita Rao 21-17, 21-14; Cherish D'Souza bt Stuti Agarwal 21-16, 18-21, 21-12.

Boys U-13 singles (semifinals): Devesh Dharmarajan bt Parthiv Chhabria 21-12, 21-11; Akshan Shetty bt Varun Dave 21-19, 21-18.