Simran Singhi beats best friend to win MSSA U-16 inter-school badminton title

Second seed Simran Singhi of Ryan International ICSE (Malad) beat school-mate and best friend Arya Shetty 21-10, 21-14 to clinch the girl's U-16 Mumbai Schools Sports Association inter-school badminton title

Second seed Simran Singhi of Ryan International ICSE (Malad) beat school-mate and best friend Arya Shetty 21-10, 21-14 to clinch the girl's U-16 Mumbai Schools Sports Association inter-school badminton title at the Cricket Club of India badminton courts yesterday.


Ryan International's Simran Singhi during the MSSA girl’s U-16 final at the CCI yesterday. Pics/Suresh KK  

In the opening game, Arya had a 4-1 lead, but Simran came back into the game with some hard-hitting cross-court smashes to win 21-10. The second game went neck-and-neck till 7-7, after which Simran took control of the game and won nine points by playing some deceptive drop shots and rallies to make it 16-8 in her favour. Arya did try to make a comeback but it was too late as Simran won the game 21-14.

After the final, an emotional Simran was seen touching the feet of her former coach Uday Pawar, under whom she had been training since she was six. The 13-year-old started training with former India player Sanjay Sharma only last week.


Arya Shetty 

"Uday sir has made me the player I am today. I have been training with him since I was a six-year-old kid. My parents felt that I need personalised coaching since there were too many students at the academy," said Simran, a Class IX student.

Title for Varun
Meanwhile, in the boys' U-16 final, third seed Varun Mujumdar of Arya Vidyamandir (Bandra) registered a 21-6, 22-20 win over Devesh Dharmarajan of Thakur Public School (Kandivli) to win the title.


Varun Mujumdar 

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