4 December, 2023
Nadeem Dalvi defied his seeding to soar to gold at the South Africa International 2023 with a stunning men’s singles win in Cape Town.
The 19-year-old, seeded eighth, was the only Badminton England competitor at the Future Series tournament and beat Mauritius’ Georges Julien Paul 21-12 23-21 in the final to claim gold.
Dalvi entered the draw in the round of 32 where he came up against Mahd Shaikh of Saudia Arabia, easing through to the second round with a comprehensive 21-11 21-16 win.
In the round of 16, he met India’s Govind Krishna, who had battled his way through qualifying to set up a contest for a place in the quarter-finals.
But Dalvi stopped him in his tracks and booked a place for himself in the last eight with a hard-fought 21-14 22-20 win in a thrilling 45-minute encounter.
The quarter-finals proved a simpler task, as Dalvi cruised past Thailand’s Ratchaphol Srithong 21-9 21-8 before meeting top seed Adham Hatem Elgamal.
Dalvi made light work of the Egyptian with a convincing 21-14 21-9 on the penultimate day to set up a showcase final with Paul, where he defied the almost 100-place rankings gap to the podium after an entertaining contest.
Image: Jnanesh Salian via Badmintonphoto
