Second seed Riya Pillai of Mumbai suburbs and fourth seed and defending champion Neha Pandit of Pune were pushed hard by their respective rivals Riya Arolkar from Mumbai city and Mrunmayee Saoji of Nagpur respectively before they entered the women's singles pre-quarter-finals in the Safal Group-Maharashtra State senior badminton championships organised by Sports United at Chembur Gymkhana yesterday.

Pillay beat Arolkar 15-6, 14- 15, 15-6, while Pandit got the better of Saoji 13-15, 15-12, 15-10.