Guwahati: The National Finals of the third edition of Red Bull Shuttle Up, India’s first ever exclusive women’s doubles tournament is all set to take place at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex in Delhi on Friday 12th November 2021.
Pairs of Debahuti Lahon & Malini Boruah from Guwahati, Shubhangi Majumder & Ramsha Farooqui from Mumbai, Afnan Zareen & Arun Komal from Hyderabad, Nalini Malik & Khushboo Shah from Chandigarh and Sana Verma and Ekta Joshi from Delhi qualified through their respective city qualifiers and will now battle it out at the National Finals of Red Bull Shuttle Up 2021.
India’s ace women doubles shuttler and Red Bull athlete Ashwini Ponnappa said, “It has always been my ambition to promote the Badminton as a sport in India, especially for the women. It’s great to be associated with brands like Red Bull that create such platforms and gives wings to the aspiring talents. It’s been a great journey with Red Bull Shuttle Up and I only see it growing in the years to come. I wish all the luck to all the finalists and look forward to an exciting tournament.”
Red Bull Shuttle Up Qualifiers were held across 5 cities – Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Delhi, Mumbai and Guwahati from 18th September to 30th October 2021, with winning pairs from each qualifier to compete at the National Finals.
With the growing popularity of the sport be it viewership or participation, the tournament aims to further boost and improve participation and popularity amongst aspiring women players. City Qualifier Results were:
Team of Debahuti Lahon and Maini Boruah from Guwahati won Red Bull Shuttle Up 2021 Guwahati City qualifiers by beating Pratiksha Pathk and Suzen Burhagohain 11-8, 9-11 and 11-7 in the finals.
Team of Shubhangi Majumder and Ramsha Farooqui from Mumbai won Red Bull Shuttle Up 2021 Mumbai City qualifiers by beating Apurva Achrekar and Vriti Raja11-8; 11-10 in the finals.
Team of Afnan Zareen and Arun Komal from Hyderabad won Red Bull Shuttle Up 2021 Hyderabad City qualifiers by beating Maturi Sripriya and Simran Kaur 11-6 11-4 in the finals.
Team of Nalini Malik and Khushboo Shah from Chandigarh won Red Bull Shuttle Up 2021 Chandigarh City qualifiers by beating Sikha Singla and Pooja 11-9, 11-7 in the finals.
Team of Sana Verma and Ekta Joshi from Delhi won Red Bull Shuttle Up 2021 Delhi City qualifiers by beating Molika Mathur and Sadhna Sikharwar in the 11-7, 11-7 in the finals.
Open exclusively for women above the age of 16, all matches are played on the knock out basis where all pairs playa best of 3 sets with 21 points (rally points). 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.
In the National Finals on 12th November, all 5 pairs get to play each other in the round robin format and top 2 on points table will face each other in the grand final match.