Top names ease into quarterfinals

It was a day of easy outings as all the seeded players made it through to the quarterfinals of the 36th PSPB inter-unit badminton Championships here on Friday.

In the men’s section, top seed Saurab Verma defeated Ansal Yadav 21-19, 21-11 in over 30 minutes, while Vivek Awasthi was sent packing home by the second seed and world number 22 HS Prannoy. Prannoy eased to win 21-11, 21-4.

In another game, third seed Chetan Anand recorded an impressive 21-9, 21-14 win over Shreyansh Jaiswal to move into the final eight. Fourth seed Sai Praneeth had to battle a determined Arsalan Naqvi to emerge victorious 21-13, 21-12.

In the women’s doubles, top-seeded pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and PC Thulasi were crowned champions as they drubbed Tanvi Lad and Aparna Balan 21-14, 21-17 in a match that lasted for over 40 minutes.

Results: Men: Singles (Round of 16): Saurabh Verma bt Ansal Yadav 21-19, 21-11; Siril Verma bt Hirakjyoti Neog 21-7, 21-12; Sai Praneeth B bt Arsalan Naqvi 21-13, 21-12; Arvind Bhat bt Ankur Baruah 21-17, 21-2; Aditya Prakash bt Deepak K S 21-6, 21-8; Chetan Anand bt Shreyansh Jaiswal 21-9, 21-14; Guru Sai Dutt bt La Talar, HPCL, 21-9 21-11; Prannoy HS bt Vivek Awasthi 21-11, 21-4.

Doubles (Round of 16): Amit Singh/ Raj Kumar G bt Manju Natha/ Sachin Kumar 21-11, 21-18; Ansal Yadav/ Manajit Singh bt Bharat Singh Thakur/ Sudheer Kumar 21-9, 21-7; Pankaj Dutta/ Pritam Sharma bt Iqbal/ Vivek Awasthi 21-11, 20-22, 21-16; Chetan Anand/ Rupesh Kumar KT bt Pavan NB/ Ravi Gujran 21-5, 21-3; Deepak KS/ Prasanna Khare bt Balaji S/ Purushothaman R 21-19, 21-13.
Women: Singles (Round of 16): Maya Dasrat bt Arti Narayan 21-2, 21-7; Madhu Gupta bt Sweta Rani W/o.

Doubles: Final: Ashwini Ponnappa/ Thulasi P C bt Aparna Balan/ Tanvi Lad 21-14, 21-17.
Semifinals: Ashwini Ponnappa/ Thulasi P C bt Arti Narayan/ Madhu Gupta 21-1, 21-5; Aparna Balan/ Tanvi Lad bt Arundhati Pantawane/ Rituparna Das 21-14, 22-20.