Nagpur: After dating for 5 long years shuttlers turned lovers – Nagpur’s own proud badminton ace Arundhati Pantawane and doubles expert Arun Vishnu finally tied the knot in a ritualistic wedding ceremony at VCA Club Jamtha on Saturday afternoon. The duo have been sharing great rapport in both their sports and love.
Beautifully attired in traditional orange Kanjeevaram, Arundhati picked up an attractive combination of traditional jewellery like thusshi, chatal waaki and bugadi. Arun was at his magnetic best in silk dhoti and maroon sherwani.
The couple has planned to settle down in Hyderabad where the duo met few years ago at Pullela Gopichand’s academy.
Arundhati told Nagpur Today that they would be heading to Maldives for their honeymoon but only after staying in Calicut with in-laws for few days.
Since both the bride and groom are from the Gopichand Badminton Academy, several players from Hyderabad reached Nagpur on Thursday. Several national champions and top ranked shuttlers including Sameer Verma, Sourabh Verma, Rituparna Das, Kidambi Nandagopal, K Maneesha, Shlok Ramchandran, Sanyam Shukla and Shreyanshi Pardeshi had a fun-filled gala time, making it a special gathering of badminton stars for the first time in the city.
One normally does not see Gopichand dancing to the tunes but the rhythmic beats of ‘dhol’ got the best of him and he broke into a jig with his much-younger trainees.
“I am very happy that Arundhati and Arun are getting married. I know both of them for more than a decade now. It’s a very special occasion for me and all of us at the academy. Arundhati is like a daughter to me so this is an emotional moment for me,” Gopichand told on Thursday.
Since the Premier Badminton League (PBL) started in Mumbai on Saturday, most of the players attended Thursday’s event and left.
