Aditya shock for top seed Kashyap
State lad books quarterfinal berth
Aditya Prakash sent top seed P Kashyap tumbling out of the NPL all-India Senior-ranking badminton tournament here on Thursday.
The Karnataka lad showed Kashyap the exit door, prevailing over the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board shuttler 23-21, 21-19 to advance to the quarterfinals at the Karnataka Badminton Association courts.
“I didn’t gave him too many chances to dribble at the net. I played a slow game and made sure he had to work for every point,” said Aditya, who will meet sixth seed Sagar Jagadish Chopda of Maharashtra in the last eight on Friday morning.
Kashyap started off well and even led 16-13 in the first game. However, he seemed disturbed when a camera flash accidentally went off. Aditya slowly reduced the gap, equalised at 18-all and then went on to take the lead with a backhand smash. Though Kashyap levelled the scores at 20-all, the first year B Com student of Jain College came up with a drop to move to game point. Aditya wasted the first game point but then followed up with a backhand smash to take the first game when an attempted drop from the Hyderabadi found the net.
The second game too was closely fought, both players taking turns in the lead. At 11-all, former Junior National champion Aditya was fortunate to edge ahead when his drop shot sat on the top of the net before falling over. From then on, Aditya scored points through his powerful cross-court smashes. Kashyap brought all his experience to play to reduce the margin, but Aditya held on to seal victory.
Second seed Aravind Bhat of PSPB survived a scare before eventually going on to win 15-21, 21-15, 21-10 against B Sumeet Reddy of Andhra Pradesh to also make it to the quarterfinals. Fourth seed Ashwini Ponnappa was the lone woman host shuttler to clear the pre-quarter hurdle. She outplayed Mohita Sahadev of Delhi 21-11, 21-16 to enter the quarters.
Earlier, Anup Sridhar went down fighting to Abhimanyu Singh of Madhya Pradesh 21-19, 18-21, 20-22 in the men’s first round while Poorvisha S Ram also fell by the wayside, going down to Arundhati Pantawane of Maharashtra 12-21, 9-21.
The top-seeded women’s doubles Kerala-PSPB pair of Aparna Balan and Shruti Kurian exited after losing to AP-Kerala duo Sikki Reddy and P C Thulasi 17-21, 21-18, 17-21 in the quarterfinals.
In the prequarterfinals, Aparna-Shruti had defeated Karnataka duo Adfa Taqui and Jacqueline Rose Kunnath 21-7, 21-11.
Results
Men, pre-quarterfinals: Aditya Prakash (Kar) bt 1-P Kashyap (PSPB) 23-21, 21-19; 6-Sagar Jagadish Chopda (Mah) bt Abhimanyu Singh (MP) 21-16, 21-14; 4-Ajay Jayaram M (PSPB) bt Sai Praneeth B (AP) 17-21, 21-18, 21-13; 7-Srujan Nandaluri (AP) bt K Nanda Gopal (Rly) 21-16, 21-18; Sourabh Verma (MP) bt Mohit Kamat (Kar) 21-15, 22-24, 21-14; 3-Guru Sai Dutt (AP) bt Nikhil Kanetkar (PSPB) 21-13, 23-21; 8-Vinay Kumar Reddy P (Rly) bt Saurav Kapoor (Har) 21-10, 21-18; 2-Aravind Bhat (PSPB) bt Sumeeth Reddy B (AP) 15-21, 21-15, 21-10. First round: Abhimanyu Singh (MP) bt Anup Sridhar (PSPB) 21-19, 18-21, 22-20.
Doubles, quarterfinals: 1-Arun Vishnu/ Tarun Kona (Ker/AP) bt Guruprasad D/ Vineet Manuel (Kar) 15-21, 21-17, 21-14; 3-Akshay Dewalkar/ Jishnu Sanyal (AI) bt Bennet Antony/ Ram C Vijay (Ker) 21-11, 21-17; Pranav Chopra/ Sai Praneeth B (AI/AP) bt 4-Alwin Francis/ Shankar Gopan (Ker) 21-17, 21-16; 2-Diju V/ Sanave Thomas (PSPB/Ker) bt Dibyajyoti Borah/ Suranjan Bhobora (Asm) 21-11, 21-7.
Women, pre-quarterfinals: 4-Ashwini Ponnappa (Kar) bt Mohita Sahadev (Dli) 21-11, 21-16; 1-Sayali Gokhale (AI) bt Arundhati Pantawane (Mah) 21-11, 21-13; 5-Gayatri Vartak (PSPB) bt Sonal More (Mah) 19-21, 21-15, 21-13; Aditi Mutatkar (PSPB) bt 6-Neha Pandit 21-13, 22-20; 3-Mudra Dhainje bt Dhanya Nair (Rly) 21-18, 21-13; Saili Rane (AI) bt 7-Parssa Naqvi (Rly) 21-18, 21-14; 8-Thulasi P C (Ker) bt Saloni Yadav (MP) 21-12, 21-9; 2-Trupti Murgunde (PSPB) bt Sikki Reddy N (AP) 21-17, 20-22, 21-17. First round: Arundathi Pantawane (Mah) bt Poorvisha S Ram (Kar) 21-12, 21-9.
Doubles, quarterfinals: 3-Anjali Kalita/ Jyotshna P (Rly/AI) bt Chitra Lekha/ Parssa Naqvi (Rly) 21-18, 21-10; Sikki Reddy/ Thulasi (AP/ Ker) bt 1-Aparna Balan/ Shruti Kurian (Ker/ PSPB) 21-17, 18-21, 21-17; Arundhati Pantawane/ Sindhu PV bt 4-Anita Ohlan/ Dhanya Nair (Rly) 21-18, 23-21; Nitya Sosale/ Pradnya Gadre bt Jui Agaskar/ Sanyogita Ghorpade (Mah) 21-15, 21-18.
Mixed doubles, quarterfinals: 1-Arun Vishnu/ Aparna Balan (Ker) bt Sanave Thomas/ Ashwini Ponnappa (Ker/Kar) 19-21, 21-18, 21-13; 4-Diju V/ Thulasi PC (PSPB/Ker) bt Dibyajyoti Borah/ Abantika Deka (Asm) 21-12, 21-17; Pranav Chopra/ Prajakta Sawant (AI) bt PH Suraj/ Bibari Basumatary (Ker/Asm) 21-11, 21-13; 2-Tanveer Gill/ Mohita Sahadev (Dli) bt Venkat Gaurav/ Juhi Dewangan (CG) 21-16, 18-21, 21-15.
