Kerala enjoy fruitful day in men's singles

Kerala enjoy fruitful day in men's singles
Hari Hara Nandanan

KOCHI, FEBRUARY 27: Hosts Kerala enjoyed a good day in the third round of the Indianoil Servo National Badminton Championship, sending four players to the pre-quarterfinals in men's singles at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Sunday.

Kerala's Jaison Xavier, Thomas Kurien, Sanave Thomas and Joy T Antony were successful on a day when most of the seeds advanced without difficulty.

Ninth seeded Sushant Saxena's defeat at the hands of Vijay Lancy of PSCB may be an upset on paper but the former has a poor record in recent head-to-head encounters. Lancy, a former semi-finalist in the Nationals, might have missed seedings because he had a break after suffering an injury in the Hyderabad Asian Satellite last year.

Petroleum's super stars, P Gopi Chand, Nikhil Kanetkar, Siddharth Jain and Ajit Wijetilak took their appointed places in the round of 16 without dropping a game while Railways also had their share of joy when three of their players -- Srikant Bakshi, Sachin Ratti and Arup Baidya -- moved up.

The only seed to face resistance on the way to the pre-quarterfinals in the men's section was JBS Vidhyadhar of AP, who prevailed over Abhijit Naimpally of Bank Sports Board 13-15, 15-7, 15-12 in one hour and 15 minutes.

Results

Men singles (Round 3):P Gopi Chand (PSCB) bt Mitesh Hazarnis (Rlys) 15-5, 15-2; Arup Baidya (Rlys) bt D Guruprasad (BSB) 15-8, 15-3; Mangrish Palekar (Mah) bt Alok Singh (Mah) 15-6, 15-11; Chetan Anand (AI) bt Amar Singh (Guj) 15-2, 15-4; Sanave Thomas (Ker) w/o A Pridhvi (AI); Joy T Antony (Ker) bt Rajiv Bagga (Mah) 15-0, 15-0; Sachin Ratti (Rly) bt Kishore Kumar (AP) 15-1, 15-10; Nikhil Kanetkar (PSCB) bt N Sivaprakash (Kar) 15-12, 15-1; Siddharth Jain (PSCB) bt Opinder Pal (Rlys) 15-4, 15-4; Vijay Lancy (PSCB) bt Sushant Saxena (UP) 15-9, 15-2; Thomas Kurien (Kerala) bt Gourav Singh (AI) 15-8, 15-1; Jaison Xavier (Kerala) bt Madhur Kalia (Del) 15-11, 15-13.

Women singles (Round 2): Aparna Popat (PSCB) bt Pooja (Del) 11-2, 11-0; PVV Lakshmi (PSCB) w/o M Srujana (AP); Leena Pedneker (LIC) bt Palkhan Nagori (Guj) 11-3, 11-5; Anumol Joy (Ker) bt Aswini Joshi (Guj) 11-3, 11-3; Ruchi Kapil (AP) w/o Prathibha Kumari (Bih); Krishna Deka Raja (Asm) w/o Sagariga (Har); Meenakshi Wagh (Mah) bt Kamaljit Kaur (Pun) 11-5, 11-9; G Jwala (AP) w/o Uma Tanang (Nag); Krupa Telang (Maha) bt Taryna Varghese (Ker) 11-6, 11-6; Tanuja Begum (Rlys) bt Riyah Rasheed (Ker) 11-3, 11-0; D Swetha (AI) bt Aditi Biswas (Kar) 11-3, 11-7; Amrutha Bhattacharjee (WB) bt Madhavi Kashikar (Rlys) 11-7, 11-3; Sridevi Gadili (Kar) bt Kamini (HP) 11-0, 11-0; Pooja Patil (Kar) bt S Sukanya (TN) 7-11, 11-8, 11-1; Preeti Gupta (J&K) w/o Parul Priyadarshini (Rly); Neelima Chowdhary (PSCB) w/o B Barula (Megh); Ketaki Thakkar (A-I) w/o Sumitra Poojari (Meg); Mapia Sengupta (WB) w/o Trupti Murgunde (A-I); Devi Suma (Ker) bt Debasree Dey (WB) 9-11, 11-7, 11-8; Nupura Bide (Mah) bt Deepa Mathur (Raj)11-4, 11-4; Barnala Raha (WB) bt Glory Xavier (Ker) 7-11, 11-4, 11-7; Merit George (Ker) bt Juhi Verma (UP) 11-3, 11-1; Sruthi Kurien (AP) w/o A Barua (Asm); Oli Deka (Asm) bt A Radhika Reddy (AP) 11-3, 11-2.

Men doubles (2nd round): U Vimal Kumar/ Vinay S (BSB) bt Rajesh Das/ Madhu (Ker) 15-11, 11-15, 15-9; George T/ Ajay K (PSCB/Dli) bt Nimish Goyal/ Kunal (MP) 15-10, 15-5; Mitesh Hazarnis/ JBS Vidhyadhar bt Devinder D/ Parveen (Dli) 15-9, 13-15, 15-8; Thomas Kurian/ Joy Antony (Ker) bt Arup Baidya/ OP Singh (Rly) 15-2, 15-0; Deepak/ Jaison (Ker) bt Manish/ Ajay Mathur (UP) 15-4, 15-12.

Women doubles (2nd round): Madhumita Bisht/ PVV Lakshmi bt K Shylaja/ Srujana (AP) 15-4, 15-5; Neelima C/ D Swetha bt Meenakshi Wagh/ Kirti Kadam (Mah) 15-3 15-6; Manju S/ Krishna (Asm) bt Merit/ Anumol (Ker) 15-1, 15-0; Devi Suma/ Fatima (Ker) bt Pooja/ Lakshmi (Dli) 15-1, 15-3; Amritha B/ Debashree (WB) bt Swathi/ Palkhan N (Guj) 9-15, 15-11, 15-6; Vinaya Shetty/ Nazneen (Rly) bt Ruchi Kapil/ Varsha 15-1, 15-10; Manjusha Kanwar/ Archana Deodhar (PSCB) bt Kashmiri/ Kavaljith (Pjb) 15-1, 15-1; Pooja Patil/ Aditi B (Ktk) bt Sukanya/ Nisha (TN) 15-2, 15-6; Sim Sim Salaria/ Nupura Bhide (Mah) bt BR Kokila/ Sridevi (Ktk) 15-3, 17-14; Sampada Shetye/ Madhavi Kashikar (Rly) bt Preeti Gupta/ Swetha (JK) 15-3, 15-1; BR Meenakshi/ Tanuja B (Ktk/Rly) bt Mapia/ Barnali Raha (WB) 15-1, 15-0; Oli Deka/ Leena P (Asm) bt Srilakshmi/ Radhika Reddy 15-1, 17-14; G Jwala/ Shruti Kurien (AP) bt Parinita/ Bhavana (Chg) 15-1, 15-5.