JOIN USTop seed in the girls’ under-19 category, Shikha Gautam from Karnataka, booked her round-of-32 berth with an easy win over Delhi’s Namit Pathania at the 41st Junior National Badminton Championships here on Wednesday.
Shikha breezed to victory in straight games, winning 21-11, 21-9 to progress.
It was quite a different story for her state-mate and 16th seed Apeksha Nayak as she went down to Chandigarh’s unseeded Ishita Kumar Manchander 21-14, 14-21, 21-17 in another under-19 fixture.
In the under-19 boys’ singles event Karnataka’s Raghu M pulled off an upset victory over 11th seed Sanjai Srivatsa of Puducherry. The unseeded Raghu posted a convincing 21-15, 21-10 over his higher ranked opponent to seal his place in the next round.
Another Karnataka player, Keerthana P Shroff, received a walk-over from 15th seed Lakshmi Priya S from Tamil Nadu to advance in the U-17 singles.
Top Karnataka shuttler Balraj Kajla found the going tough in the boys’ under-19 singles but eventually sealed his progress after defeating Madhya Pradesh’s Alap Mishra.
Kajla lost the first game 7-21 before recovering to win the nex two 21-18, 21-18.