Ishanvi Kale stuns 25th seed as six Pune players advance in state badminton

Pune players put in a strong showing at the Yonex Sunrise SBA Cup state-level under-15 and under-17 badminton championship being held in the city. Ishanvi Kale, Tejasvi Bhutada, Nidhi Gaikwad, Satvik Gupta, Swara More and Aarohi N beat their opponents to reach the next round.

The tournament is being organised by Sudhanshu Badminton Academy in association with Samarth Group. The matches are being played at the Modern PDMBA Sports Complex of the P. E. Society.

In the girls' section, Pune's Ishanvi Kale caused a big upset in the second round. She beat Mumbai Suburban's 25th seed Khanak Jhalani 15-12, 15-11 in straight games.

In other matches in the same section, Solapur's Shrutika Borgaonkar could not stand up to Pune's ninth seed Tejasvi Bhutada, who won 15-6, 15-3 with ease. Mumbai Suburban's 12th seed Tian Castelino beat Nanded's Astha Mane 15-6, 15-8 to reach the third round.

A contest between two Pune players was closely fought. Nidhi Gaikwad beat Rishika Rasal 15-11, 9-15, 15-10 in a three-game match and moved ahead.

In the boys' section, in a third-round match, Pune's Satvik Gupta ended the challenge of Jalgaon's Anmay Joshi 15-12, 15-12. Nagpur's Bhavik Musale beat Pune's Neel Chavan 15-8, 15-12 to reach the fourth round. Mumbai City's Ryan Shah beat Pune's Ishan Roy 15-10, 15-10.

In the state-level sub-junior inter-district team badminton championship held at the same event, the Raigad team won the titles in both the boys' and girls' categories. In the under-17 boys' final on the courts of the same Shivajinagar complex, Raigad beat Buldhana 2-1. Raigad's Kritya Patel gave the team the lead by beating Buldhana's Devavrat Khandekar 15-5, 15-6 in the singles match.