Sub-Junior State Selection Badminton tournament in Nashik on Sunday.
Nagpur's Sairaj and Satya of Mumbai stunned last tournament's winners Abheek Sharma and Swarit Satpute 22-20, 21-17 in an exciting semi-finals. In both the games, Sairaj and Satya were trailing initially against the Pune pair but bounced back gallantly to seal the match in straight games.
Last tournament's semifinalists Sairaj and Satya will now clash with second seeds Sayaji Shelar and Udayan Deshmukh in the final on Monday. Earlier in the semis, Sairaj-Satya thumped Mumbai's Kritya Patel and Shivam Chaure 21-15, 21-14.
In the U-17 boys doubles quarter-finals, Nagpur duo Sairaj and Arnav Palshikar went down fighting against top seeds Arjun Birajdar and Aryan Birajdar 20-22, 8-21.
Sairaj, who trains under Kunal Dasarwar and TS Bisht, is a student of Narayana Vidyalayam, Chinchbhavan.