Kanetkar knocked out

In the end, Kanetkar admitted to playing a bad game but gave full credit to Gupta. “He sized me up well and persisted with his game. It was not my day,” said Kanetkar. This was the second year in succession Nikhil was bowing out early in the Nationals, after last year’s quarter-final loss to Srikant Bakshi.

The other upset came in the form of B Kiran Kumar, seeded 16th. The Air- India man went down to19-year-old Madhur Kalia of Delhi 13-15, 5-15. Kalia, playing his first Senior Nationals, had already caused an upset yesterday by packing off No 4 Sushant Saxena. Today, the 12th class student, after trailing 8-11 in the first game, picked up from where he left off yesterday to sew up the match.

Srikant Bakshi, who lost to Vijay Lancy in the crucial team event a couple of days ago, avenged the loss today by ousting the Maharashtrian in straight games. In the women singles, No. 5 CH Deepti of BAI lost to unseeded Krishna Hazarika.

Results Men’s singles (PQF): P Gopi Chand (AP) b Parag Modi (A-I) 15-1 15-4, Mangrish Palekar (Rly) b Utsav Mishra (UP) 17-16 15-3, Madhur Kalia (Del) b B Kiran Kumar (A-I) 15-13 15-5, Sachin Ratti (Rly) b Rajeev Bagga (Mah) 15-7 12-0 (conceded), Ajit Wijetilak (Kar) b Arup Baidya (Rly) 10-15 15-4 15-1, Abhinn Shyam Gupta (A-I) b KA Aneesh (Ker) 15-7 8-15 15-3, Srikant Bakshi (Rly) b Vijay Lancy (Mah) 15-9 15-11, Anuj Gupta (Guj) b Nikhil Kanetkar (Mah) 15-1115-8.

Doubles (PQF): Vincent Lobo/ Jaseel Ismail b Bhasker Bora/ T Yabang 15-6 15-6, Anuj Gupta/ Unni Krishna b Sanjoy Rao/ Hirak Sen 15-4 15-6, Parag Modi/ Sushant Niddodi b Ranjan/ Niraj Kumar 15-3 15-10, Harish Chander/ OP Singh b Yoginder Singh/ Anirudh Rao 15-11 15-8, Deepak Amarnath/ Jaison Xavier b Varinder/ Surinder 15-5 15-12, Praveen Gehlawat/ Davinder Dhillon b TJ Shanker/ S Shankaran 15-3 15-7, Vinod Kumar/ Roy Mathew b Jai Singh/ Mangrish Palekar 15-5 15-8, V. Diju/ Sanve Thomas b Piyush Parihar/ Raj Saraswat 15-8 15-10, Chetan Anand/ Mitesh Hazarnis b P Raghavan/ Mutha Rasu 15-2 15-9, Rajeev Bagga/ VD Singh b Major Singh/ Sameer Abassi 15-7 15-3, Ajay Kanwar/ Ajit Wijetilak b Ajanta Choudhary/ P Deka 15-2 15-2, Amrish Shinde/ Mayur Ghatnekar b P Sunil/ P Satish Chander 15-0 15-3, Thomas Kurian/ Jose George b Arita Nandi/ Arindam Mukherjee 15-6 15-12, Bhushan Akut/ Srikant Bakshi b Ashish Chander/ Sunil Pandey 15-9 15-5, Amit Mahrotra/ Utsav Mishra b Safaq Nawab/ Nilesh Kumar 15-5 15-10,George Thomas/ Markose Birstow b Kamal Das/ DS Mohanty 15-7 15-0.

Women’s singles (PQF): Aparna Popat (Kar) b Amrita (WB) 11-1 11-2, Nirmala Kotnis (A-I) b Ketki Thakkar (A-I) 11-3 11-2, Neelima Chowdary (AP) b Shalaka Damle (A-I) 11-5 11-6, BR Meenakshi (Rly) b D Sweta (A-I) 11-3 11-1, Sampada Shetye (A-I) b Manju T Abraham (Kar) 11-4 5-2 (conceded), PVV Lakshmi (AP) b Kranti Sane (Mah) 11-1 11-3, Krishna Hazarika (Asm) b CH Deepti (BAI) 7-11 11-5 11-6, Manjusha Kanwar (Mah) b Divya Ramesh (A-I) 11-2 11-0.