Badminton: Switch from Satara to Thane works wonders for Sarvesh Yadav

Sarvesh Yadav at MIG CC on Saturday. Pic/Ashish Raje

Thane district's Sarvesh Yadav, 16, who clinched the boys' U-17 singles title in the Suhas Nadkarni Memorial Yonex Sunrise Maharashtra State Open Badminton Tournament at the MIG Cricket Club on Saturday, hopes to improve his national ranking after his current performance. In the final, he took just 25 minutes to defeat Arnav Dagli 21-10, 21-6.

In the semi, top seed Sarvesh registered a 21-10, 22-20 win over Ishan Salvi. He last won the U-17 state title in 2021 at Kalyan. Sarvesh credited his success in the recent past for his switch from Satara to Thane in 2019. He thanked his parents (Naina and Mahesh) who shifted to Thane so that he could pursue his badminton dream. Sarvesh trains under Shrikant Vad at the Thane Badminton Academy.

Overall development

"I used to play under Sangram Kadam in Satara and he recommended I train under a better coach [Vad sir] since that would help improve my game. So my parents decided to shift base from our hometown [Satara] to Thane. Coming here has helped me learn a lot, not just in terms of the game, but also in my overall development. My father is so supportive that in order to not let the training hamper my studies, he permitted me to do my Class X via open schooling. My aim is to better my All India ranking [Badminton Association of India ranking is 26]. I want to improve that and make it to the Top 5.

Winning an All-India ranking tournament in my age group is something I need badly," Sarvesh, who got 70 per cent in his Class X exams this year, told mid-day. In the girls final, top seed Naishaa Kaur Bhatoye enjoyed smooth sailing against unseeded Riya Vinherkar, also of Greater Mumbai, and cruised to a quick 21-6, 21-5 victory in 21 minutes.

Padukone hails event

Praising the tournament,one of the chief guests of the event, badminton great Prakash Padukone said: "It's a good initiative to have a tournament which has veterans and juniors. It has had a good response in the first year, I hope they continue doing better each year."

Also Read: Sunil Gavaskar and Prakash Padukone spotted at Suhas Nadkarni Memorial badminton tournament final

Other final results

Women's doubles (70+): 2-Dipti Paranjpe Purohit/Priya Ambekar bt 1-Deanne Rodrigues/Neesha Spingett 17-21, 21-19, 21-9

Men's doubles (80+): Amit Deshpande/Prashant Bahatre bt Kaushik Vartak/Rohit Athaley 21-13, 21-16

Men's doubles (90+): 2-Parag Ekande/Siddharth Kishor Patil bt Prashant Bahatre/Yogesh Padukone 12-21, 21-10, 21-16

Team championship: Andheri Sports Complex Tigers bt GSM Sports Club 2-1