Bengaluru, December 22, 2024: Lower ranked players ruled the roost on a pleasant Sunday morning as all the top six women’s singles seeds, including defending champion Anmol Kharb were knocked out of the Yonex-Sunrise 86th Senior National Badminton Championships here at the pre-quarterfinal stage.
Anmol, who recently reached the finals of the Guwahati Masters Super 100 tournament, was defeated by 12th seed Shriyanshi Valishetty 21-12, 21-15 while 16th seed Tasnim Mir packed-off top seed Aakarshi Kashyap 21-19, 21-17.
On the other courts, 15th seed Shreya Lele continued her impressive run in Bengaluru as she came from a game down to beat former champion and second seed Anupama Upadhyaya 13-21, 21-18, 21-14, 13th seed Devika Sihag kept her composure to beat fourth seed and last edition runners-up Tanvi Sharma 21-19, 21-18, unseeded Rujula Ramu accounted for fifth seed Mansi Singh 21-19, 20-22, 21-13 and 14th seed Sakshi Phogat ended the campaign of sixth seed Adita Rao 21-18, 21-19.
Seventh seed Isharani Baruah, who got the better of the promising Rakshitha Sree S 23-21, 21-19 is now the highest seed left among the last eight and will take on Tasnim Mir in the quarter-finals.
Former world junior championships bronze medallist and second seed Ayush Shetty was the highest ranked men’s singles player to be knocked out of the championships as he went down 21-15, 11-21, 21-5 against 14th seed Alap Mishra.
National Games gold medallist M Tharun was no match to former champion Mithun Manjunath’s guile as he went down 21-18, 21-12.
There was an upset galore even in the doubles events with women’s doubles top seeds Rutaparna and Swetaparna Panda were beaten 16-21, 16-21 by junior national champions Tanoo Chandra and Lalrempuii. Shreya Balaji and Deepta S then packed off fifth seeds Prerana Alvekar and Mrunmayee Deshpande 21-18, 23-21.
In the mixed doubles categories, Ayush Agarwal and Shruti Mishra combined well to beat sixth seed Sathwik Reddy K and Vaishnavi Khadkekar 21-18, 21-14 while Shivam Sharma and Poorvisha S Ram accounted for fifth seeds Ashith Surya and Amrutha P 12-21, 21-19, 21-18.
