Nagpur, Jan11
City's doubles specialist Ritika Thaker and her Mumbai partner Simran Singhi had sweet revenge against Ukrainian pair in the women doubles first round of Yonex-Sunrise India Open Badminton Championship began at New Delhi on Tuesday.
Two months back Ritika and Simar had lost to Mariia Stoliarenko-Yelyzaveta Zharka in Ukrain Open. However, today they took the revenge by defeating them in three games. After losing the first game 14-21, Ritika and Simran changed the strategy and played aggressively in next two games. In the second game, the Ukrainian pair at one stage was leading 19-16 but them Riika-Simrar earned three consecutive points to level the score. Ultimately Ritika and Simran manage to win the second game 22-20 and restored the parity. The decider was also keenly contested. In this game also Ritka and Simran were trailing initially. But then after a change of ends, they bounced back to overpower their opponents in a thrilling game that was lasted for one hour and four minutes. However, another city shuttler Mugdha Agrey made an early exit as she lost her first-round match to Anupama Upadhyay 11-21, 15-21 in 41 minutes.
On day two Malvika Bansod will play her first round match against Samiya Imad Farooqui from 12 noon onwards.