Deepankar claws his way ahead

HYDERABAD, Feb 6: Defending champion Pullela Gopi Chand and sixth seed Deepankar Bhattacharjee outplayed their rivals in contrasting style t...

HYDERABAD, Feb 6: Defending champion Pullela Gopi Chand and sixth seed Deepankar Bhattacharjee outplayed their rivals in contrasting style to march into the third-round of men’s singles event of the 62nd Bristol Senior National Badminton Championship at the Lal Bahadur Stadium here today.

Local star Gopi Chand just took 23 minutes to beat Soman Chattacharjee (WB) 15-0, 15-1. But the sixth seed and last year’s runner-up Deepankar Bhattacharjee was forced to put in his vast experience against Manish Sharma of Uttar Pradesh before dropping a game to emerge victor at 15-7, 8-15, 15-6.

Third seed Nikhil Kantekar of Railways, fifth seed Srikant Bakshi also of Railways, seventh seed Anuj Gupta recorded easy wins, but the eighth seed Susant Saxena of Uttar Pradesh rallied back superbly to down Murali Krishna 12-15, 15-4, 15-3.

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Earlier in the morning session former India skipper- Deepankar, after claiming the first game easily at 15-7, found it hard in the second game.

The lanky Manish Sharma played a wellcalculated game using his height to intercept the smashes of Deepankar time and again. A 6-0 lead gave Manish the wanted impetus to inch ahead and clinch the second game at 8-15.

Deepankar, came back into the third game with a vengance and his high service throughout the game, came as an advantage. Moreover, he made Manish run all around the court to exhaust his stamina. Deepankar won the game at 15-6.

RESULTS (2nd round)

Men’s singles: Ritesh Ranjan (Bih) bt Surajdeb (Tri) 15-2, 15-2; Shashidhar (AP) bt Madhur Kalia (Del) 18-14, 15-2; Chetan Anand (A-I) bt Raju Joshi (Meg) 15-1, 15-2; Arub Vaidya (Rly) bt Ramlakham (Pnb) 15-6, 15-2; Pankaj Pandey (Del) bt Amusana Singh (Man) 15-5, 15-10; Anuj Gupta (Guj) bt L Purugan (Pon) 15-0, 15-2; JBS Vidyadhar (AP) bt Abijit Naimpally (Kar) 15-1, 15-3; P Gopi Chand (AP) bt Soman Bhattacharjee (WB) 15-0, 15-1, Incent Lobo (Rly) bt Vikrant Patwardhan (Mah) 9-15, 15-3, 18-14; Ajit Tilak (BAI) bt G Bharath (Pon) 15-4, 15-2; Shrishail Malage (AP) btUtsav Misra (UP) 15-11, 15-9; Deepankar Bhattacharjee (Asm) bt Manish Sharma (UP) 15-7, 8-15, 15-6; Susant Saxena (UP) bt Muralikrishna (AP) 12-15, 15-4, 15-3; Joy T Anthony (Ker) bt Ranjit Singh (Pnb) 15-7, 13-15, 15-5; Sudhir Babu (AP) bt Ashish Chadda (Del) 14-18, 15-10, 15-9; Srikant Bakshi (Rly) bt Rohan Kapoor (Pnb) 15-9, 15-5; S S Kannan bt Praveeen Ghelwat (Del) 15-6, 15-3; Paragmodi (Mah) bt Anjuman Misra (Ors) 15-3 15-6; Nikhil Kanetkar (A-I) bt Pavanjeet Singh (J&K) 15-1, 15-1; Guruprasad (Kar) bt L Nanda Kumar Singh (Man) 15-6, 15-7; Mayur Tawade (Mah) bt Rahul Sharma (J&K) 15-11, 15-13, B Kiran Kumar (A-I) bt Sanav Thomas (Ker) 15-8, 15-12, Vijay Lancy (Mah) bt H Inovacha Singh (Man) 15-11, 15-7.

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Women’s singles: Lakshmi Rao (AP) btÃ¿Sim Sim Salaria (Mah) 7-11, 11-6, 12-9; Parul Priyadarshini (UP) bt Karishma Singh (Del) 11-0, 11-1; Amrutha Banerjee (WB) bt GeetaÃ¿Agarwal (Chd) 11-8, 11-2; Thanuja Begum (Ker) bt Krishna HazarikaÃ¿(Asm) 11-3, 10-12, 11-5; Rekha (AIU) bt Sunita Kumari (Bih)11-2, 11-2; Sudha Rani (AP) bt Swati (Guj) 11-5, 11-4; Nirlam Kotnis (A-I) bt Sapna (Punjab) 11-2, 11-3; Sreedevi Gadgil (Karnataka) bt H Sreedevi (Manipur) 11-3, 11-3.