Surat, Oct 1: Hosts Gujarat survived a scare before overcoming Uttarakhand 3-2 in the quarterfinals of the mixed team event at PDDU Stadium on Saturday to be assured of their first badminton medal from the National Games.
Junior World No. 1 Tasnim Mir and Aryamann Tandon gave the hosts early lead when they defeated Dhruv Rawat and Aditi Bhatt 15-21, 21-14, 21-14.
Aryamann Tandon then returned to the court to thrash Dhruv Negi 21-8, 21-7 in the men’s singles to give Gujarat a 2-0.
However, with Adita Rao could not maintain the tempo and went down 21-12, 21-15 against Aditi Bhatt in women’s singles and Shashank Chhetri and Dhruv Rawat restored parity for Uttarakhand by beating Purushottam Aware and Bhavin Jadhav 21-8, 21-11 in men’s doubles.
With pressure well and truly on Shenan Christian and Adita Rao, the women’s doubles combination rode on local support to beat Rageshri Garg and Divyanshi Sharma 21-15, 21-11 and take their team to the semi-final, where they will face Kerala.
“We look forward to the semifinal match against Kerala. But winning the first ever medal is a big achievement for our team,’’ said Gujarat team manager Monesh Mashruwala.
Asked why Adita Rao played women’s singles ahead of Tasnim Mir, Gujarat coach Amrish Shinde said the latter had a slight niggle and hence they decided against making her play two events.
The other semifinal will see Maharashtra take on top seeds Telangana.
In the quarter-finals, Maharashtra defeated Delhi 3-1.
