Abhishek, Trupti create a flutter

August 4: For some time now, Air-India's Abhishek Bakshi and AP's Shruthi Kurien have been hailed as the future stars of Indian badminton....

August 4: For some time now, Air-India8217;s Abhishek Bakshi and AP8217;s Shruthi Kurien have been hailed as the future stars of Indian badminton. And on Friday at the KBA Stadium, the two youngsters came up with a performance that justified such billing by handing out defeats to higher ranked, more famed rivals en route to booking their last eight berths in the 6th BPL all-India Open badminton tournament.

While Bakshi was his composed self in ousting third seed Chetan Anand by a 15-7, 15-13 margin, Shruthi dug deep into her reserves to pip Ketaki Thakkar and win 4-11, 11-5, 13-10.

These two results along with Trupti Murugunde8217;s upset 11-2, 11-6 win over former National champion PVV Lakshmi, provided relief from the list of lop-sided results on an arduous opening day of the four-day tournament.

Abhishek, now runs into last year8217;s runner-up Siddarth Jain in the quarterfinals.

QF lineup

Men: Gopi Chand vs Arup Baidya; Abhishek Bakshi vs Siddarth Jain; Anuj Gupta vs Nikhil Kanetkar; Sachin Ratti vs Abhinn Shyam Gupta. Women: Aparna vs Shruthi; Parul vs Neelima; Manjusha vs Trupti; Divya vs Meenakshi.

Results

Men8217;s singles 1st round: P Gopi Chand IOC bt Sankat Shetty Mah 15-5 15-3; SDS Krishna AI bt Joy T Anthony Ker 15-4 17-16; Arup Baidya Rlys bt Thomas Kurien Ker 15-1 15-11; Abhijit Naimpally Kar bt Madhur Kalia Rlys 17-14 15-3; B Chetan Anand ONGC bt Vijay Lancy BPCL 15-10 15-8; Abhishek Bakshi AI bt KR Shivashankar TN 15-4 15-11; Siddarth Jain ONGC bt Utsav Misra UP 15-4 15-4; JBS Vidyadhar Rlys bt KA Anish Ker 15-1 15-1; Anuj Gupta GNFC bt Ravinder Singh UP 15-4 15-5; Sanave Thomas Ker bt Srikanth Bakshi Rlys 12-15 15-8 15-3; Sushant Saxena UP bt BG Kiran Kar 14-17 15-8 17-14; Nikhil Kanetkar IOC bt Tarun Chauhan Del 15-0 15-1; Sandesh Chouta Kar bt Davinder Dhillon Del 15-7 15-9; Sachin Ratti Rlys bt Arvind Bhat Kar 15-9 15-5; Mayur Ghatnekar Rlys bt D Guruprasad Kar 10-15 17-14 15-12; Abhinn Shyam Gupta AI bt Jaison Xavier Ker 15-1 15-3.

PQF: Gopi Chand bt Krishna 15-5 15-7; Arup Baidya bt Abhijit Naimpally 15-8 15-7; Abhishek Bakshi bt Chetan Anand 15-7 15-13; Siddarth Jain bt JBS Vidyadhar 15-11 15-5; Anuj Gupta bt Sanave Thomas 17-14 15-3; Nikhil Kanetkar bt Sushanth Saxena 15-13 15-3; Sachin Ratti bt Sandesh Chouta 15-5 15-13; Abhinn Shyam Gupta bt Mayur Ghatnekar 15-4 15-2.

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Women8217;s singles 1st Round: Krupa Telang Mah bt Tanuja Begum 11-6 11-0; Shruti S Kurien AP bt Radhika Reddy AP 11-5 11-5; Leena Pednekar LIC bt Neha Ganguly AI 4-11 11-1 11-7; Neelima Choudhary BPCL bt BN Ashwini Kar 11-7 4-11 11-6; G Jwala AP bt Meenakshi Wagh Mah 11-8 11-6; Trupti Murugunde AI bt Palkan Nagori Guj 11-4 11-5; Oli Deka OIL bt Ruchi Kapil UP 11-3 11-6; Nupura Bhide Mah bt BR Kokila Kar 11-6 11-5.

PQF: Aparna Popat IOC bt Krupa Telang 11-3 11-1; Shruti Kurien bt Ketaki Thakkar AI 4-11 11-5 13-10; Parul Priyadarshini Rlys bt Leena Pednekar 11-6 11-2; Neelima Choudhary bt Sampada Shetye Mah 11-7 11-9; Manjusha Kanwar IOC bt Jwala 11-2 11-4; Trupti Murugunde bt PVV Lakshmi BPCL 11-2 11-6; Divya Ramesh LIC bt Oli Deka 11-1 11-6; BR Meenakshi Kar bt Nupura Bhide Mah.