Sunday turned out to be a memorable day for Nagpur shuttlers as they made their first appearance in the last four stage in the senior nationals.
In the grueling quarterfinal that lasted for more than one hour, Ritika-Simran got the better of Samruddhi Singh-Sonali Singh in three games. The first game was keenly contested. Ultimately Samruddhi and Sonali won it 21-19. However, in the second game Ritika and Simran bounced back and restored parity by winning it 21-10 easily. In the decider, Ritika and Simran showed lot of temperament. At one stage they were leading 13-8 but then their opponents made recovery and made the equation 14-12. When the score was 18-16 in favour of Ritika and Simran, they earned consecutive three points to win the decider 21-16.
Earlier in the pre-quarters, Ritika-Simran stunned seventh seed Kanika Kanwal and Shivani Santosh Singh 21-11. 21-17.
Now in the semis to be played on Monday Ritika-Simrna will take on top seed Gayatri Gopichand-Treesa Jolly.