Kanitkar will now meet Sushant Saxena of Uttar Pradesh in the semi-final. Fourth seed Saxena prevailed over 23-year-old Joy T Anthony 15-12, 15-7 in the quarter-final encounter.

However, the best and toughest quarter-final encounter was between third seed Srikant Bakshi of Railways and Thomas Kurien of Kerala. After splitting the first two games, Bakshi won the third for the match. The Railway shuttler won 10-15, 15-5, 15-7. He faces second seed Abhinn Shyam Gupta of Air-India in the second semi-final. Gupta registered a 15-10, 15-1 win over Devinder Dhillon of Delhi.

Top seed Manjusha Kanwar (Maharashtra), Sampada Shetye (Air-India), PVV Lakshmi (AP) and CH Deepti (Kerala) moved into the semi-finals in the women's singles.

Lakshmi, whorepresented India at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, was extended to three games by Archana Deodhar 11-1, 9-11, 11-1 in the quarter-final match. After Lakshmi had coasted through the first game 11-1, Archana came up with some exquisitive drops to win the second game 11-9. In the decider, Laxmi romped home 11-1.

Manjusha outclassed Delhi's Parul Majithia of Delhi whom she routed 11-1, 11-0 while Sampada Shetye ousted BR Meenakshi 11-7, 11-3 and C H Deepti outpointed Glory Xavier 11-1, 11-5.

Results

MEN (quarterfinals): Sushant Saxena (UP) bt Joy T Anthony (Kerala) 15-12, 15-7; Nikhil Kanitkar (Mah) bt Jaison Xavier (Kerala) 15-10, 15-3; Srikant Bakshi (Rlys) bt Thomas Kurian (Rlys) 10-15, 15-5, 15-7, Gupta (A-I) bt Devinder Dhillon (Delhi) 15-10, 15-1.

PQF: Kanitikar bt Ravinder Singh 15-6, 15-3, Joy bt Sidhharth Jain 4-1 (conceded injured), Jaison bt Vikrant Patwardhan 15-5, 15-4; Thomas Kurien bt Anuj Gupta 15-5, 15-4; Devinder Dhillon bt Surjit Sebastian 12-15, 15-9,15-3; Gupta bt Manish 15-5, 15-2, Sushant Saxena bt Parveen Ghelawat 15-4, 15-10.

Doubles: Vijay Deep/ Ajay Kanwar bt Bhaskar Bora/ T Yopang 15-6, 15-7; Amrish Shinde/ Madhukar Ghatkar bt Satvinder and Sukhwinder 15-4, 15-6; Bhushan Akut/ Srikant Bakshi bt Surinder and Varinder 15-4, 15-8; Rajeev Bagga/ Milandhare bt J Xavier and Amarnath 15-12, 15-10; Harish Chander and O P Singh bt Parveen Gehlawat and S Pandey 15-5, 6-15, 15-10; George Thomas and Mars bt Ramlakhan and Neeraj 15-12, 15-1; Parag Modi/ Sushant bt Thomas Kurien and Jose George 15-11, 15-11.

Women's singles (q-finals): Manjusha Kanwar (Mah) bt Parul Majithia (Delhi) 11-1, 11-0, Sampada Shetye (A-I) bt BR Meenakshi 11-7, 11-3, PVV Lakshmi (AP) bt Archana Deodhar (Mah) 11-1, 9-11, 11-1, CH Deepti bt Glory Xavier (Kerala) 11-1, 11-5.

Pre-quarter-finals: PVV Laxmi bt Partibha 11-0, 11-0, Manjusha Kanwar bt Gyatri 11-1, 11-1, S Shetty bt Karishma Singh 11-7, 11-2, Archana Deodhar bt Javdeep Kaur 11-2, 11-1, B R Meenakshibt Kanika 11-2, 11-0, Deepti bt Yogita 11-3, 11-4, Glory Xavier bt Kirtikadam 11-5, 5-11, 11-3.

Doubles: PVV Lakshmi and Madhumita Bisht bt Pratibha and Harshlata 15-2, 15-1, Manjusha Kanwar and Archana Deodhar bt Kanita and Karishma 15-5, 15-8, B R Meenakshi and S Shetye bt Navdeep Kaur and Yogita 15-13, 15-4.