Nagpur’s shuttler Nehal Gosavi overcame a game deficit to dig deep and shock top seed in her Under-19 girls singles quarter-final of the Shivajiraje Bhonsale Memorial Maharashtra U-19 State Selection Badminton Tournament under way at Satara, on Sunday.
Top seed Pune’s Ananya Gadgil took the first game 21- 12 but the city lass put her best foot forward to make it 1-1 tak- ing the second game 21-14. The win gave her confidence and she kept her cool to stun the better rated rival 24-22 in the extended decider. She will play Sanika Patankar of Pune in the semis.
On her way to the quarters, Nehal accounted for her city- mates Pinak Rokde 21-4, 21-11 and Kripi Sajwan 21-17, 21-16 and Aurangabad’s Sanskruti Satarkar 21-12, 21-19.
Partnering Latur’s Nagesh Chamle, Nehal also reached quarters of the mixed doubles event. In the Round of 16 U-19 match, Nehal-Nagesh defeated Parth Lohakare and Hetal Vishwakarma 24-22, 21-13. They will play Devesh Jena and Nagpur’s Nikkita Joseph in the last-eight match.
However, it was curtains for her in the girls doubles as Nehal and Ananya Durugkar lost the quarter-finals to second seed- ed combination of Aarti Chougale and Ananya Gadgil 16-21, 20-22.
Nehal practices under renowned coach Kiran Makode at VBA Hall.