Krishna Khaitan Memorial: U-19 pair of Gavandi-Ekade emerge from coaching stables of former national champion Akshay Dewalkar

Soon after the Maharashtra doubles U19 pair of Om Gavandi and Sanidhya Sunil Ekade completed a 15-6, 15-5 win over Punjab’s Nirmaan Jain and Arnav Negi to enter the second qualification round of Yonex Sunrise 31st Smt Krishna Khaitan Memorial All India Junior Ranking Prize Money Tournament, the duo called up their coach and former national champion Akshay Dewalkar.

17-year-old Gavandi and 16-year-old Ekade had started playing doubles just this year on the insistence of Dewalkar and the duo wanted to tell the coach about their first win in a national ranking tournament at the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex.

“My earlier partner Sarvesh Yadav was injured and Akshay sir had advised me to play doubles with Sanidhya since his net game compliments my back court game. We had played a couple of times at the state level but never at national level. We both know that it’s still an experimenting stage for us but then wins like these even in qualification rounds give us the confidence that we are complimenting each other’s gameplan in doubles. One has to think like one mind as a doubles pair and it’s just the start for both of us,” shares Gavandi.

While Gavandi’s badminton journey started in Nagpur eight years ago with his father Group Captain Atul B Gavandi posted there at that time, Ekade started the sport on the insistence of his agriculturist father Sunik Ekade in Washim.

A young Gavandi would become the U-13 national champion in Tezpur, Assam in 2018 before he paired up with Sarvesh Yadav to win the bronze in the U-17 nationals in Hyderabad in 2023. With Gavandi being five-time Maharashtra champion in singles sub-junior and junior categories, coaches at Thane Badminton Academy, encouraged him to compete in doubles starting 2019.

“I had always focussed on being a singles player since my junior days and the U13 national title made the coaches believe that I can improve as a singles player. But when they wanted me to compete in doubles as well with Yadav in recent years, my singles game also helped me at the back court game. The state titles as well as a couple of main draw finishes in national ranking tournaments apart from the U17 nationals bronze made me think about doubles too as a specialisation. Yes, my focus is on singles and I know that I need to decide about only competing in doubles if I get success in a few years,” shares Gavandi.

As for Ekade, his focus has always been on doubles and the youngster had paired up with Nidhish More to win the runner-up trophy in Maharashtra State U-17 Championships last year, where they lost to Gavandi/Yadav.

Ekade, who has now shifted to Thane since last one year, also has paired up with Aditi Gawade and Prakriti Sharma at the state tournaments to have two finals and one semi-final appearances in the last 12 months. “I am a net player and that’s the thing which coaches have worked upon. But then to have a strong back court player is what I needed in my doubles pairing and I hope to find that with Om. I idolise the doubles pair of Kevin Sukamuljo Sanjaya and Marcus Gideon and we understand that the pair started playing together after trying different partners. As a junior doubles player, one tries different partners but if we can find consistency and success, we will play together. We train at the same academy and that’s an advantage for us,” says Ekade.

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