BPS State Badminton Ranking Tournament 2026

At 14–14 in the opening game, Ayaan Shaikh waited through the match’s longest gap before taking control. The fifth-seeded Shaikh then won three of the next four rallies to edge Karan Dhavaskar 17–15 on Court 3, and that late burst set the tone for a 15–9 second game and a 35-minute Round of 16 victory.

Dhavaskar had the better start to game one, recovering from 3–1 down to lead 8–6 at the interval. Shaikh answered by bringing the game level at 8–8, but the lead changed hands repeatedly: Dhavaskar moved from 12–12 to 14–12, only for Shaikh to recover both points and level again at 14–14. The data’s most revealing pause came there, with the longest rally gap recorded before that score.

The second game opened with Dhavaskar ahead 3–0, yet Shaikh again erased the deficit. After 7–7, Shaikh won four straight rallies to reach 11–7, then extended the advantage to 14–8 before closing at 15–9. Both players recorded a longest streak of four, but Shaikh’s was the decisive one: it arrived in the second game after the score had been level.

The margins were tightest late. Shaikh won 10 of 15 clutch rallies, compared with Dhavaskar’s five, while each player won five of the nine rallies before and after the interval. Shaikh advances with a 2–0 score; Dhavaskar’s challenge ends after two games in which he twice built an early lead but could not preserve it.