BPS State Badminton Ranking Tournament 2026

At 12–12 in the deciding game, Shivanjali Thite and Shreya Mehta were still within reach. Three rallies later, the third-seeded pair had restored a 15–12 lead and the quarterfinal was theirs, 15–13, 14–16, 15–12, over sixth seeds Niharika Parwar and Synnovia Dsouza on Court 3.

The match opened with Parwar and Dsouza taking the first point, but Thite and Mehta answered quickly and moved from 2–2 to 6–3. A four-rally burst then turned that advantage around: Parwar and Dsouza reached 7–6 and later led 9–8. Thite and Mehta steadied the game at 9–9, won three straight to move 12–9 ahead, and held off a late push from 13–11 to close the opener 15–13.

Parwar and Dsouza responded in the second. They trailed 7–3 and were 8–8 at the interval, then built a 12–9 lead. Thite and Mehta recovered to 12–12, but the sixth seeds took the next two rallies and finished 16–14, forcing the decider after 29 minutes of play.

The deciding game followed the same pattern of pressure and recovery. Thite and Mehta led 6–2, were pegged back to 6–6, then moved ahead 8–6 and stretched the margin to 13–7. Parwar and Dsouza won five of the next seven rallies to reach 12–14, but Thite and Mehta ended the contest on their first match point.

The less obvious edge was at the starts: Thite and Mehta won eight of 15 opening-game rallies across the match, compared with seven for their opponents. Their six-rally streak in the match was also the longest run by either side. That small early advantage carried the third seeds into the next round.