Arvind Bhat powers into semis; Trupti Murgunde, Sayali Gokhale in last four
Guwahati: Anup Sridhar shrugged off his recent poor form to break into the semifinals of the 74th Senior National Badminton Championships here on Friday. Two-time champion Anup joined reigning champ Arvind Bhat, Chetan Anand and P Kashyap in the last four.
The women’s singles was entirely dominated by shuttlers from the Padukone Academy. Trupti Murgunde, Aditi Mutatkar, Gayatri Vartak and Sayali Gokhale made the semifinals. Apart from Sayali, who is the reigning champion, none of the others has won the national title.
Anup did well to hold off the challenge of top seed Ajay Jayaram, winner of the NPL All India Ranking tournament recently. Jayaram took the first set, but Anup came back strongly to take the second and third and book a place against fourth seed Kashyap.
Meanwhile, three-time champion Chetan Anand, a strong contender for this title as well, booked a date with defending champion Arvind Bhat. Chetan quelled the challenge of the dangerous Guru Sai Dutt in the pre-quarterfinals in three games and then eased past Rohan Castelino.
Among the exciting matches of the day was the one featuring national junior champions Sai Praneet/ Pranav Chopra against Alwin Francis and Shankar Gopan. Sai and Pranav edged past in the tight contest 21-13 20-22 22-20.
Results (all quarterfinals)
Men’s singles: 13-Anup Sridhar bt 1-Ajay Jayaram 16-21 21-12 21-14; 4-Kashyap P bt Sagar Chopda 11-21 21-11 21-12; 3-Arvind Bhat bt Sachin Ratti 21-8 21-11; 14-Chetan Anand bt Rohan Castelino 21-16 21-16
Women’s singles: 1-Sayali Gokhale bt 5-PC Thulasi 21-18 21-17; 4-Gayatri Vartak bt 6-Neha Pandit 21-12 21-16; 7-Aditi Mutatkar bt 12-Sikki Reddy 21-18 21-18; 2-Trupti Murgunde bt 10-Sonal More 21-12 21-12
Men’s doubles: 1-Arun Vishnu/ Tarun Kona bt 6-Bennet Antony/ Ram C Vijay 17-21 21-19 21-19; 3-Akshay Dewalkar/ Jishnu Sanyal bt Anirban Chetia/ Anshuman Hazarika 21-13 21-10; Sai Praneet/ Pranav Chopra bt 4-Alwin Francis/ Shankar Gopan 21-13 20-22 22-20; 2-Rupesh Kumar/ Sanave Thomas bt D Guruprasad/ Vineet Manuel 2-0 retd.
Women’s doubles: 1-Aparna Balan/ Shruti Kurien bt Meenakshi Nair/ Mohita Sachdev 21-5 21-9; Anita Ohlan/ Dhanya Nair bt Prajakta Sawant/ Saumya Padhye 21-14 21-8; Sikki Reddy/ Thulasi bt Preety Singh/ Theograce B 21-4 21-8; 7-Ashwini Ponnappa/ Jwala Gutta bt Anjali Kalita/ P Jyotsna 21-9 21-18
Mixed doubles: 1-Arun Vishnu/ Aparna Balan bt Suraj/ Basumatary 21-12 21-8; Pranav Chopra/ Prajakta Sawant bt Ram C Vijay/ Megha Merin 21-12 21-7; Diju/ Jwala bt Jishnu Sanyal/ Nitya Sosale 21-8 21-10; Akshay Dewalkar/ Pradnya Gadre bt Jayan James/ Anjali Kalita 21-7 21-13

