Top seeds breeze into quarterfinals at Khaitan Memorial tournament

It was a tough going for fourth seed Bisht of Uttrakhand as she had to fight her way hard to register a 17-21, 23-21, 21-15 win over Ishita Manchander of Chandigarh in a match which lasted close ot one hour. Second seed Prashi Joshi of Air India had an easy outing as she cantered to a 21-18, 21-7 win over Nishita Varma Pakalapati of Andhra Pradesh to enter the quarters. Seventh seed Malvika Bansod ended the fine run of Haryana’s Nikita Sharma with a 21-10, 21-13 win.

Kashyap also followed her win in the U-17 category with a 21-10, 21-14 win over Trisha Hegde of Karnataka to enter the quarter-finals in the girls’ U-19 singles category. Top seed Shikha Gautam of Karnataka eased past Amolika Singh of Uttar Pradesh with a 21-9, 21-15 win while fourth seed Riya Mookerjee of Uttar Pradesh sniffed out the challenge of Ishita Kumar Manchander of Chandigarh with a 21-11, 21-14 win.

It was also joy for seventh seed Ashmita Chaliha of Assam as she eked out a 21-17, 21-16 win over Akshita of Andhra Pradesh to enter the quarter-finals.

In the boys’ singles U-17 category, fourth seed Abhyansh Singh of Uttar Pradesh eased his way into the pre-quarters with a 21-12, 21-12 win over Aravind Suresh of Kerela while fifth seed Aman Farogh Sanjay of Maharashtra booked his spot into the quarter-finals with a 21-16, 21-16 win over Pranay R of Andhra Pradesh.

In the last 32 stage, four players of Andhra Pradesh advanced into the pre-quarters with seventh seed Jaswanth D scoring a 21-11, 21-13 win over Tukum Laa and Pavan Krishna Thola registering a 21-16, 23-21 win over Afraz Mohamed of Tamil Nadu. Sai Charan Koya of Andhra Pradesh too joined his team-mates in the pre-quarters with a 21-14, 21-19 win over Vishnuvardhan Goud of Telangana while Sarath D advanced further when eighth seed Orijit Chaliha of Air India retired hurt with the score 21-7, 4-1 in Goud’s favour.

Earlier in the day, the duo of Paurush Dhawan and Shaurya Madaan of Chattisgarh made their way into the pre-quarters in the boys’ U-17 doubles category with a challenging 23-21, 22-24, 21-19 win over Digvijay Giri and Tabrez Md of Bihar. It was also joy for Aman Raikwar and Yash Raikwar of Madhya Pradesh as the duo ended the challenge of Sudhish Venkat of Andhra Pradesh and Tilak M of Pondicherry with a 21-10, 21-15 win.