The Under 19 Girls doubles rank number 1 pair of Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi were crowned champions of the Mumbai Edition of Red Bull Shuttle Up - the first ever-exclusive women’s doubles tournament in the country

~ The Mumbai Edition of Red Bull Shuttle Up- a first ever exclusive women’s doubles tournament in the country took place on 20^th October 2018

~The National Champions of the tournament get the delightful opportunity to play against the best badminton doubles player in the country Ashwini Ponnappa and her partner

20^th October 2018, Mumbai: The  Mumbai edition of the first ever- exclusive women’s doubles tournament in the country, Red Bull Shuttle Up took place on 14^th October  2018 at the Andheri Sports Complex, Andheri.  The tournament saw 40 teams participating and after some quality women doubles action, the under 19 girls doubles rank no 1 pair of Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi triumphed over Nidhi Tiwari and Aakriti Kumar in straight sets 11-3; 11-0 to be crowned the winners of the Mumbai edition. Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi are u19 girls doubles rank no 1 players while Nidhi Tiwari and Aakriti are semi finalists in Junior National Championship and semi finalists in Delhi state mixed doubles respectively. The winners will now move on to the National finals.

With the growing popularity of the sport be it viewership (5^th most viewed) or participation (2^nd most played), the tournament aims to further boost and improve participation and popularity amongst aspiring women players. Red Bull Shuttle Up Qualifiers started with 5 cities Delhi, Bangalore, Guwahati, Hyderabad with the final round that took place in Mumbai. The winning pair gets an exciting opportunity to play against the best badminton doubles player in the country Ashwini Ponnappa and her partner.

Final Match Scorecard:

Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi defeated Aakriti Kumar and Nidhi Tiwari in straight sets 11-3; 11-0

Set 1: 11-3

Set 2: 11-0

India’s ace women doubles shuttler and Red Bull athlete Ashwini Ponnappa said, “Badminton is growing in terms of popularity through viewership and receiving interest through participation. It is my ambition to create awareness and promote doubles badminton in the country as there is a lot of potential for it. We had many Indian pairs who have made it to the knockout stages of international tournaments, which are encouraging signs for doubles badminton. I am grateful to Red Bull for coming up with initiatives like Red Bull Shuttle Up, which provide aspiring women players the opportunity to fulfill their dream and also uplift the standard of women badminton in our country. I would like to congratulate the winners of the Mumbai qualifiers and would wish them all the luck for the National finals.”

Open exclusively for women above the age of 16, all matches will be played on the knock out basis where all pairs will play a best of 3 sets with 11 points (rally points) instead of the traditional 21 points a set. Each pair, with prior notification to the referee can call for a super point once in a set. By calling for a super point, the pair will get 2 points if they win that particular point. There will be no deduction of points if the pair loses that point. Players must be prepared to play 5/6 matches in a day, during the event. 6 pairs will qualify for the National Finals (first week of November) i.e the winners from each city (5 cities) + 1 lucky losing pair. Lucky loser will be the pair that lost the finals but scored the maximum number of points in that match. In case of 2 teams tied on the same number of points, the same from the previous round will be considered.

For more information on and registrations for Red Bull Shuttle Up, kindly visit – www.redbull.in/shuttleup

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