Unnati Hooda.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Bengaluru: With as many as 160 first round matches scheduled, the 86th Senior National Badminton Championships got underway at the Karnataka Badminton Association here on Friday.
It was a day’s break for the top 12 seeds in both the men’s and women’s singles sections as they received an opening round bye. While Sathish Kumar K and Ayush Shetty are the men’s one and two seeds, Aakarshi Kashyap and Anupama Upadhyaya are the top two players in the women’s draw.
The most noted name among the lot - Unnati Hooda - is unseeded. After leading Haryana to the women’s team championships, the 17-year-old began her campaign with a comfortable 21-10, 21-9 win over Jammu & Kashmir’s Unnati Jaral.
As for the hosts, it was a good day as all their contenders in action on day one of the individual event had easy wins to advance to the second round. However, Ilishaa Pal was the only player from the state to be tested by Uttar Pradesh’s Divyanshi Gautam before scoring a 22-24, 21-19, 21-7 to help Karnataka begin with a clean slate.
Results (only Karnataka): First round: Singles:
Men: Abhishek Yeligar bt M Anshad (A&N) 21-2, 21-7; Naren Iyer bt Soumyadeep Saha (Tri) 21-6, 21-15; Raghu M bt Harshal Bhoyar (Chg) 21-17, 21-17; Tushar Suveer bt Bhaskar Chakraborty (RBI) 21-14, 21-11; Abhinav Garg bt Samuel Tamang (AR) 22-20, 21-14.
Women: Tanya Hemanth bt Manya Ralhan (Pun) 21-7, 21-6; Prerna Shet bt Saad Dharmadhikari (Mah) 21-18, 21-14; Rujula Ramu bt Sheetal Joshi (MEG) 21-3, 21-4; Sneha S bt Aadhya Shine (Ker) 21-13, 21-10; Ilishaa Pal bt Divyanshi Gautam (UP) 22-24, 21-19, 21-7.