The second-seeded Bhat, coming into the event after taking part in three international tournaments in South East Asia, was beaten 19-21, 16-21 by unheralded Andhra Pradesh shuttler K Tanishaq in 40 minutes.
Top seed Chetan Anand, also of Petroleum, sailed into the quarterfinals along with third seeded teammate P Kashyap and sixth seed Ajay Jayaram, the Mumbai-based shuttler.
Anand ousted Pavan Malik of Chhattisgarh and P Vinay Kumar Reddy of AP in the first two rounds in straight games while Kashyap brushed aside the challenge from Utsav Mishra of AI and Saurabh Verma of MP in his first two ties in the Rs 5 lakh tournament.
There was another upset when eighth seed JBS Vidyadhar of Petroleum was shown the exit door after a 45-minute, three-game battle against his pre-quarterfinal opponent SDS Krishna of Karnataka.
In the match between Bhat and Tanishaq, who came through four rounds of qualifiers into the 32-man main draw, scores ran neck to neck till 9-all in the first game before the former surged ahead 15-13.
But his opponent rattled off seven points while allowing Bhat to grab only two to be at game point at 20-17. The second seed then hit the shuttle out to lose the game.
Tanishaq dominated the second game from the beginning to surge to a commanding 13-6 lead before Bhat recovered poise and narrowed down the gap to one point (15-16).
But Bhat continued his error-prone ways and managed to win just one more point in the match.
Tanishaq will take on Mohit Kamat of Karnataka in the second round. The latter got past Maharashtra’s Prashant Bahatare 21-7, 21-13 in just 20 minutes.
Men’s singles: II round: 1-Chetan Anand (PSPB) bt P Vijay Kumar Reddy (AP) 21-15, 21-13; 6-Ajay Jayaram (Mah) bt Pratik Patel (Guj) 21-15, 21-10; 3-P Kashyap (PSPB) bt Saurabh Verma (MP) 21-19, 21-12; SDS Krishna (Kar) bt 8-JBS Vidyadhar 16-21, 21-9, 21-13.
I round: VK Reddy bt Manish Rawat (Rlys) 21-14, 21-11; C Anand bt Pavan Malik (Cg) 21-11, 21-12; Jayaram bt Aditya Prakash (Kar) 21-16, 21-17; P Patel bt Saurav Kapoor (AI) 18-21, 23-21, 21-16; Kashyap bt Utsav Mishra (AI) 21-12, 21-9; S Verma bt CM Sasidhar (AP) 17-21, 21-9, 21-12; 8-JBS Vidyadhar (PSPB) bt S Aravind (AP) 12-21, 21-16, 22-20; Krishna bt Nigel D’Sa (Mah) 21-10, 16-21, 21-12; Anshuman Hazarika (Asm) bt Arun Nandaluri (AP) 21-6, 21-10; Sagar Chopda (Mah) bt Ratikanta Saha (Rlys) 21-13, 21-15; Srujan Nandaluri (AP) bt Ashish Sharma (Chd) 21-15, 21-11; 4-Anand Pawar (AI) bt Jamie Bonsels (Eng) 21-10, 21-13; 7-Guru Sai Dutt bt Nikhil Kanetkar 21-11, 21-12; K Tanishaq (AP) bt 2-Aravind Bhat (PSPB) 21-19, 21-16; Mohit Kamat (Kar) bt Prashant Bahatare (Mah) 21-7, 21-13; Thomas Kurien (Ker) bt Manu Attri (UP) 21-16, 21-13.
Women’s singles: II round: 1-Aditi Mutatkar (PSPB) bt Trupti Lavanya (MP) 21-13, 21-12; 5-Neha Pandit (Mah) bt Radhika Singh Bhati (Raj) 21-12, 21-2; 4-M Ashwini Ponnappa (Kar) bt Bibari Basumatary (Asm) 21-16, 21-14; 6-Gayatri Vartak (Mah) bt Saloni Yadav (MP) 21-17, 21-16; 2-Sayali Gokhale (AI) bt Saumya Padhye (Kar) 21-13, 21-12.
I round: Trupti L bt N Suswetha (AP) 21-4, 21-4; A Mutatkar bt Jui Agaskar (Mah) 21-15, 21-8; N Pandit bt Abantika Deka (Asm) 21-18, 21-15; A Ponnappa bt Mohita Sahdev (Del) 21-12, 21-16; Bibari bt Sampada Sahasra-buddhe (Mah) 21-19, 21-15; G Vartak bt Sonal More (Rlys) 20-22, 21-16, 21-15; Trupti M bt 7-Anjali Kalita (Asm) 22-20, 9-21, 21-14; Arundhati Pantawane (Mah) bt Garima Yadav (MP) 21-7, 21-11; S Padhye bt Rachita Sahdev (Del) 21-10, 21-3; 3-Mudra Dhainje (AI) bt Shravanti Mokashi 21-11, 21-9; 8-Parssa Naqvi (Rlys) bt Rucha Nikam (Mah) 21-16, 21-9.
