Karishma Wadkar reaches semis after coming back from injury lay-off

Updated on: 12 December,2011 07:25 AM IST |
Sundari Iyer |

Karishma Wadkar makes semi-finals at Bombay Gymkhana after injury lay-off

Karishma Wadkar makes semi-finals at Bombay Gymkhana after injury lay-offu00a0

Wild card entrant Karishma Wadkar (14) of Maharashtra staged a strong comeback after injury, defeating seventh seed Sara Naqvi of Uttar Pradesh 21-15, 19-21, 21-19 in the girls U-17 quarter-final of the Gautam Thakkar Memorial All India Junior Masters Badminton tournament at the Bombay Gymkhana yesterday.

No stopping: Karishma Wadkar at the Bombay Gymkhana yesterday.
Pic/Shadab Khan

It wasn't easy going for Karishma against Sara, as the injury recurred during the match, but her determination kept her going in the Rs 10 lakh prize money tournament. Karishma won the first game 21-15, but Sara came back to win the second 21-19.

However, in the third game, they were tied 19-all before Karishma won the next two points to make the last four. India's No 2 player in the girl's under-15, Karishma doesn't figure in the current rankings due to the three-month injury lay-off for a hamstring tear on the right leg.

"I had to skip a lot of tournaments, especially my first Asian Junior Badminton Championships (ABC) in Japan. Not having a ranking hurts, but I am glad that I could reach the semi-final of this tournament," Karishma told
MiD DAY.

Meanwhile, it was a day of upsets for the top seeds in the U-19 and U-17 sections. U-19 India No 1 Gauri Ghate retired hurt against Tanvi Lad while top seeds in boys' and girls' under-17, Aditya Joshi and Sudha Kalyani were shown the door in the round of eight.

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