December 5, Guwahati: Junior world championship bronze medallist Ayush Shetty came up with a confident showing to win both his qualifying round matches convincingly to book a main draw spot in the inaugural Guwahati Masters Super 100 badminton tournament on Tuesday.
Shetty first packed off 7th seed Kiran Kumar Mekala 21-12, 21-15 before beating Siddharth Pratap Singh 21-14, 22-21 in 41 minutes.
In the opening round, the lanky youngster will face compatriot Arunesh Hari.
Speaking about his performance in the qualifying rounds, Shetty said the drift did make things tough in the second game against Siddharth Pratap Singh but he was happy that he could control the rallies and finish the match in two games.
While all the eight men’s singles qualification slots went to the Indian shuttlers, Assam’s upcoming stars Isharani Baruah was the lone Indian qualifier in women’s singles.
Isharani, who had played an important role in helping the state clinch the women’s team gold in the recently concluded National Games in Goa, first defeated compatriot Shriyanshi Valishetty 21-15, 21-12 before getting the better of Indonesia’s Deswanti Nurtertiati 21-19, 21-16 to qualify.
She will now face third seed Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei in the opening round.
Isharani was happy to have reached the main draw of a Super 100 tournament and felt that the home support made a huge difference. “Both the matches were quite tough. But I am from Assam and it is the first time a Super 100 event is being held here and the support I got from my friends and well wishers was special today.”
