Badminton: Defending champion Anmol Kharab and five other seeded women’s singles players crashed out of the Senior National Badminton Championships after losing in the pre-quarterfinals in Bengaluru on Sunday.
Anmol recently reached the final of the Guwahati Masters Super 100 tournament. She lost to 12th seed Sriyanshi Valishetti 12-21, 15-21. In another match, 16th seed Tasneem Mir defeated top seed Akarshi Kashyap 21-19, 21-17.
15th seed Shreya Lele continued her brilliant performance after coming from one game down to defeat former champion and second seed Anupama Upadhyay 13-21, 21-18, 21-14 in a thrilling match.
Devika Sihag (13th seed) defeated fourth seed and last season’s runner-up Tanvi Sharma 21-19, 21-18 in both close games, while unseeded Rujula Ramu defeated fifth seed Mansi Singh 21-19, 21-18. Defeated 20-22, 21-13. Sakshi Phogat (14th seed) ended the campaign of sixth seed Aditi Rao 21-18, 21-19.
Seventh seed Ishrani Barua defeated the talented Rakshita Sri S 23-21, 21-19. She is the highest seeded player to reach the last eight. Ishrani will face Tasneem in the quarterfinals.
Former World Junior Championships bronze medalist and second seed Ayush Shetty was the top-ranked men’s singles player to bow out of the championships. He had to face defeat against 14th seed Aalap Mishra 15-21, 21-11, 5-21.
National Games gold medalist M Tharun was defeated by former champion Mithun Manjunath 21-18, 21-12. There were upsets in the women’s doubles also. Top seeds Rutaparna and Swetaparna Panda lost 16-21, 16-21 to junior national champions Tanu Chandra and Lalrempui.
After this, Shreya Balaji and Deepta S defeated fifth seeds Prerna Alvekar and Mrinmayi Deshpande 21-18, 23-21.
