Shailesh Daga enters 45 plus semis; Ayaz Bilawala-Naheed Divecha advance in GD Birla Badminton tournament

Shailesh Daga marched into the semi-finals of the men’s 45 plus singles category at the 28th GD Birla Memorial Masters Inter-Club Badminton tournament in Mumbai on Friday.

The five-day annual tournament is being hosted by Badminton 45 and Bombay Gymkhana. The event, being held under the aegis of the Greater Mumbai Badminton Association (GMBA), is being sponsored by the Aditya Birla Group and managed by Badminton Gurukul.

Top seed Shailesh Daga scored a straight-forward 15-9, 15-4 victory over Nikhil Chari in the quarter-finals. Daga will take on Narendra Sawardekar in the semi-finals. Sawardekar got a walkover in the quarter-finals.

The other semis will pit Justin Joseph against Sandeep Mohan. Justin continued his fine form to get the better of Dhirruj D 15-10, 15-6, while Sandeep beat Dileep R Matta 15-4, 15-6.

Top seeds Ayaz Bilawala and Naheed Divecha beat Purnima Deshmukh and JP Chowdary 30-19 in the mixed doubles 80 plus category. (Pic credit: GMBA)

Mixed doubles pair Ayaz Bilawala and Naheed Divecha sail into the GD Birla badminton quarters

The 80 plus mixed doubles saw top seeds Ayaz Bilawala and Naheed Divecha move into the quarter-finals with a dominating 30-19 victory over Purnima Deshmukh and JP Chowdhary.

Speaking on the sidelines between matches, Ayaz Bilawala, organizing secretary of Badminton 45 said:

“We are proud to be organizing the 28th GD Birla Memorial Masters Badminton tournament, along with Bombay Gymkhana. We are thankful to our sponsors, Aditya Birla Capital Finance, and we are proud to have their association for the last 25 years.

"Badminton 45 is a trust started by our founders, the late Aditya Birla and Gautam Thakkar, and we have proudly continued this tradition of hosting the tournament, especially for the veteran players of our city. We hope that this year too, the players will have fond memories of this tournament, like they always used to do.”

NSCI’s Vikrant Kushwaha progressed to the semi-finals with a 15-4, 15-10 victory over Sachin Baste in the singles for the professionals section. Rajan Samant trounced Sanjay Golbare 15-9, 15-9 to seal his spot in the last four. Premal Mankar dismissed Anand Mhaskar 15-11, 15-9, while Akshay Kadam accounted for Chetan Bhandarkar 15-11, 15-9 to complete the semi-final line-up.

Results

Professional men’s singles (Quarter-finals)

Vikrant Kushwaha bt Sachin Baste 15-14, 15-10

Rajan Samant bt Sanjay Golbare 15-9, 15-9

Premal Mankar bt Anand Mhaskar 15-11, 15-9

Akshay Kadam bt Chetan Bhandarkar 15-11, 15-9.

Professional men’s doubles (Quarter-finals)

Kalpesh Padekar/Sanjay Golbare bt Bharat Ganke/Sailesh Joshi 15-8, 15-11

Anand Maskar/Rishi Kushwaha bt Premal Mankar/Rajan Samant 13-15, 15-13, 15-9

Ajay Mali/Chetan Bandekar bt Rahul Bhuvad/Santosh Pawar 15-10, 15-12

Dinesh Golbare/Manoj Nachnekar bt Akshay Kadam/Sachin Baste 15-14, 12-15, 15-10.

Men’s singles 45 plus (Quarters-finals)

Shailesh Daga bt Nikhil Chari 15-9, 15-4

Justin Joseph bt Dhirruj 15-10, 15-6

Sandeep Mohan bt Dilip Ramkrishan Matta 15-4, 15-6.

Men’s doubles 45 plus (Round of 32)

Dushyant Bhatia/Rajeev Karia bt Faisal Siddique/Naval Bir Kumar 30-28.

Mixed Doubles 80 Plus (Round of 16)

Ayaz Bilawala/Naheed Divecha bt Purnima Deshmukh/JP Chowdary 30-19

Hamir Desai/Shalini Kandhari bt Rajendrasinh/Kushboo Sagar 30-19

Rajesh D’souza/Rupali Gupta bt Payal Mehta/Darshit Parmar 30-17

Russell Drego/Sareeta Jetwani bt Calvin Fernandes/Paromita Phulwaria 30-15

Sushant Shetty/Nikita Thakur bt Mahesh Chhabria/Harpreet Kaur 30-19

Sushant Niddodi/Sejal Sheth bt Justin Joseph/Nilakshi Sinha 30-8.

Men's doubles 85 plus (Round of 32)

Rajesh D’souza/Sushant Niddodi bt Ashoo Khemka/Sudhir Nehwal 30-13

Kushal Shah/Viren Shah bt Kamal Belal/Rupesh Patel 30-20

Hamir Desai/Nazim Dawoodani bt Kailash Lalvani/Raja Seetharaman 30-26

Kousambi Roy/Vishal Manchanda bt Kershi Pavri/Russell Drego 30-28

Anis Badami/Sushant Shetty bt Prashant Mehta/Sanjay Arya 30-14

Anand Vithalkar/Vivek Shah bt Johan Daruwala/Vivek Burman 30-15

Abhiraj Gandhi/Fabian bt P Ginishkumar/K Sethuraman 30-20

Faisal Siddique/Rajan bt Parthasarathi Patnaik/Tushar Kulkarni 30-19

Mitesh Arora/Prashant Shah bt Connolly Lewis/Ranjeet Kumar 30-18

Amrish Ved/Rishi Bansal bt Mayur Bhojwani/Sunil Seth 30-16

Chandrashekhar Pitre/Vijesh Nair bt Kaushik Vartak/Sachin Bharati 30-25

Deepak Shete/Manish Kumar bt Dhirendra Maurya/Vinod Jain 30-24

Jinesh Mehta/Sachin Mehta bt Suraj Awatramani/Tejas Ubale 30-29

Nitesh Shah/Sachin Wani bt Maulik Jasapara/Viral Mehta 30-28

PM Balakrishna/Siddharth Gupta bt Bhairav Desai/Rajmohan Amonkar 30-4.

Men’s doubles 110 plus (Quarter-finals)

Gautam Ashra/Shailesh Daga bt Chetan Vora/Yogesh Sanghavi 15-11, 16-14

Bibhash Chatrjee/Rajesh D’souza bt Abhay Naik/Anoop Shukla 15-10, 15-6

Ashok Sharma/Mahesh Chhabria bt Rajendra Naik/Suraj Awatramani 15-8, 12-15, 15-12

Amol Shah/Naval Bir Kumar bt Deepak Kumar Damania/Hemant Arolkar 15-4, 15-8.

GD Birla Team RR1

Vanita Samaj bt PJ Hindu Gymkhana 3-0

All Indian Balkanji Bari bt CCI B 3-0

NSCI B bt MCA Kandivali B 2-1

MCF B bt Jolly Gymkhana B 2-1

Matoshree bt SCN Club 3-0.

GD Birla Team RR2

NSCI B bt Jolly Gymkhana B 3-0

MCF B bt MCA Kandivali B 2-1

Goregaon Sports Club bt Matoshree 3-0

Bombay Gymkhana A bt Hindu Gymkhana 3-0

Andheri Sports Complex bt CCI B 3-0.

GD Birla Team RR3

Goregaon Sports Club bt SCN Club 3-0

NSCI B bt MCF B 2-1

MCA Kandivali B bt Jolly Gymkhana B 2-1

Bombay Gymkhana bt Vanita Samaj 3-0

Andheri Sports Complex bt All Indian Balkanji Bari 2-1.