Aparna Popat marches ahead

NEW DELHI, FEB 6: Top woman shuttler Aparna Popat crushed Assam's Bibari Basumatory to storm into the third round of women's singles even...

NEW DELHI, FEB 6: Top woman shuttler Aparna Popat crushed Assam’s Bibari Basumatory to storm into the third round of women’s singles even as men’s section saw an upset when junior National champion Thomas Kurien was knocked out in the first round at the 63rd Senior National Badminton Championship here today.

Aparna, who received a bye in the first round, simply outsmarted Bibari 11-3, 11-0 with her better court coverage and perfect placements on the first day of the open event.

Railway’s Thomas Kurien became the first casualty when the seasoned Utsav Mishra (Uttar Pradesh) prevailed over the youngster 15-9, 10-15, 15-10 and set up a second round tie with Saumen Bhattacharjee (West Bengal).

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The Bengal shuttler beat Sanyasi Rao of Andhra pradesh 15-8, 15-10 on the side court.

Utsav played a tactical match by engaging his dangerous opponent into long rallies before turning aggressive. This unsettled Thomas, who prefers dribble and smash game.

The UP shuttler raced to 10-2 lead before Thomas clawed hisway back right upto 10-9, but Utsav had his chances and won the game 15-9. After losing the second game 10-15, Utsav concentrated on keeping the shuttle in play for longer period which again put pressure on Thomas and subsequently he succumbed in the decider.

Kerala’s Roopesh Kumar scored an inspiring 14-17, 15-2, 15-6 win over Sanket Shetty of Maharashtra while Vivek Gautam (Mah) was stretched to three games by Mayur Ghatnekar (Rlys) before winning 15-9 10-15 15-10.

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In other exciting action, Karnataka’s D Guruprasad beat Vijay Sharma (Del) 7-15, 15-11, 15-5, Railways Arup Baidya defeated PSB Nagendra (Kar) 8-15, 15-8, 15-4 and veteran Rajiv Bagga of Maharashtra trounced Pankaj Panday (Del) 15-6, 15-12.