Guwahati, December 22, 2023: Young rising shuttler Shriyanshi Valishetty put up an impressive performance to beat the defending champion Anupama Upadhyaya with a stunning come-from-behind 18-21, 21-13, 21-17 win in the women’s singles round-of-16 match at the Yonex-Sunrise 85th Senior National Badminton Championships 2023 in Guwahati on Friday.
The prestigious tournament has been organised by the Badminton Association of India in Assam after four years as the finals will be played on Sunday.
The 16-year-old from Telangana, Shriyanshi conceded the first game but made the former junior World No. 1 Anupama work hard for each point. The youngster found her rhythm as the match progressed. She made a strong comeback to win the next two games with a dominating display.
Shriyanshi will face home favourite Isharani Baruah in the quarter-final. Baruah thrashed Rhucha Sawant of Maharashtra 21-11, 21-13.
Top seed Aakarshi Kashyap and Assam’s Ashmita Chaliha also made their ways into the quarters with comfortable victories. While Aakarshi got the better of Rajasthan’s Sakshi Phogat 21-9, 21-13, Ashmita triumphed over Surya Charishma Tamiri of Andhra Pradesh 21-15, 21-10.
Aakarshi will face Badminton Asia U-17 & U-15 Junior Championships 2023 silver medallist Tanvi Sharma whereas Ashmita will be up against Meghana Reddy M in the Last-8 stage.
Meanwhile in the men’s singles pre-quarters, defending champion Mithun Manjunath secured a 21-17, 22-20 win over Bhargav Somasundara. BWF World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen too made progress with a convincing 21-16, 21-11 victory against Abhishek Saini. They will face Kiran George and Bharat Raghav respectively in Last-8.
Men’s doubles category saw top seeds Krishna Prasad-Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala and in-form pair of Hariharan Amsakarunan-Ruban Kumar R winning their respective matches on Day 3. Krishna and Vishnuvardhan beat Ayush Makhija-Sujey Tamboli 21-16, 21-18 while Hariharan and Ruban moved past Viplav and Viraj Kuwale 21-14, 21-14.
Women’s doubles and mixed doubles category, on the other hand, witnessed big upsets with the top seeded pairs bowing out in both the categories.
The reigning mixed doubles champions T Hemanagendra Babu-Kanika Kanwal were ousted by Ayush Agarwal-Shruti Mishra 21-13, 16-21, 21-15 whereas women’s doubles duo of Arulbala R-Varshini VS fell short against Aparna Balan-Rituparna Das 19-21, 21-17, 21-12 in the pre-quarterfinals.
