Sai Praneeth, Anup enter pre-quarters

Top seed B Sai Praneeth of Petroleum and Karnataka’s Anup Sridhar advanced to the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the ONGC all-India Senior-ranking badminton tournament with comfortable victories at the KBA courts here on Thursday.

Sai Praneeth put it past Uttar Pradesh’s Arshalan Naqvi 21-17, 21-6 in the second round match while Sridhar got the better of Trinankur Nag of West Bengal 21-6, 21-9.

There was more good news for the hosts with Rohan Castelino and eighth seed Aditya Prakash progressing to the last 16 stage as well. Castelino defeated ninth seed Mayank Behal of Punjab 21-18, 16-11 after the latter retired in the second game.

Prakash, meanwhile, registered a 21-9, 22-20 win over Manish Gupta of Chhattisgarh.

In the women’s singles, No 1 seed Neha Pandit of Airports Authority of India (AAI) reached the pre-quarters with a 21-18, 21-12 victory over Karnataka’s Nischitha GM. Second seed PC Thulasi of Kerala eased to a 21-8, 21-6 win over Haryana’s Ekata Kalia.

Results (prefix denotes seedings, second round): Men’s singles: Rohan Castelino (Kar) bt 9-Mayank Behal (Pun) 21-18, 16-11 retd; 8-Aditya Prakash (Kar) bt Manish Gupta (Chg) 21-9, 22-20; 5-Pratul Joshi (AI) bt Ratikanta Saha (WB) 21-12, 21-10; 1-B Sai Praneeth (Pet) bt Arshalan Naqvi (UP) 21-17, 21-6; Neeraj Vashisth (Har) bt 16-G Gopi Raju (AI) 21-16, 21-16; Anjan Buragohain (Asm) bt Suraj RN (Kar) 21-14, 22-20; Chetan Anand B (Pet) bt 10-C Rohit Yadav (AAI) 21-17, 21-12; 7-Anup Sridhar (Kar) bt Trinankur Nag (WB) 21-6, 21-9.

Women’s singles: 1-Neha Pandit (AAI) bt Nischitha GM (Kar) 21-18, 21-12; G Ruthvika Shivani (AP) bt 9-Sara Naqvi (UP) 21-14, 21-14; 8-Riya Pillai (Mah) bt Anura Prabhudesai (Goa) 21-19, 21-12; J Sarada Govardhini (AP) bt 11-Sneha Santhilal (Ker) 21-19, 21-18; 4-Tanvi Lad (Pet) bt Sampada Sahasrabuddhe (Mah) 21-18, 21-7.

Leela Lakshmi R (AP) bt 16-Sheshadri Sanyal (WB) 21-16, 21-12; 7-Saili Rane (AI) bt Shradha Srivastava (Del) 21-10, 21-11; 12-Shruti Mundada (Mah) bt Amrin Mubarak G (TN) 21-5, 21-4; Rituparna Das (WB) bt Sanskriti Chhabra (Del) 21-11, 2-0 retd; 5-Arundhati Pantawane (Mah) bt K Sri Krishna Priya (AP) 21-12, 21-6; 15-Mudra Dhainje (AI) bt Varsha Belawadi (Kar) 21-13, 21-13; 3-Trupti Murgunde (Pet) bt Swati Sharma (Utk) 21-10, 20-22, 21-10; 10-Sanyogita Ghorpade (AI) bt Rucha Nikam (Mah) 21-13, 21-15; Juhi Dewangan (CG) bt Dimpal Hazarika (Asm) 21-8, 18-9 retd; 2-Thulasi PC (Ker) bt Ekata Kalia (Har) 21-8, 21-6; Vrushali G (AP) bt 6-Mohita Sahdev (AAI) 21-19, 13-21, 21-15.  Doubles: Megha Merin Ninan/ Linymol PS (Ker) w/o Nimmi Patel/ Pramada V (Guj/AP); Meghana J/ Poorvisha S Ram (AP/Kar) bt 6-Anusha Nayak/ Niharika Saini (MP/Raj) 21-14, 21-6; Poornima CH/ Pooja M (AP) bt Daksha Gautam/ Ekata Kalia (Har) 21-13, 21-13; Nischitha GM/ Sneha Santhilal (Kar/Ker) bt 2-Pizza Bharali/ Dimpal Hazarika (Asm) 21-11, 21-10.