HYDERABAD, June 8: Top seed Nikhil Kanetkar (Maharashtra), after struggling to get into his groove in the initial stages, posted a 15-12, 15-8 win over Mangrish Palekar and move into the quarter-finals in the men's singles event of Indian Grand Prix Badminton Tournament here on Monday.The other seeded players who made the last eight are Sachin Rati (Railways) and Ajit Wijetilek (Karnataka).Mangrish Palekar, after surging to a 4-0 lead, failed to maintain his tempo and could not match the aggressive play of Kanetkar and lost the first game at 12-15. In the second, Kanetkar faced little resistance from his opponent and won it at 12-8 to win the match.Rathi, after some initial setbacks, never allowed Anuj Gupta to settle down and coasted to a comfortable 15-12, 15-8 win.Wijetilek dominated the proceedings right from the word go to post an impressive 15-4, 15-8 win over Chetan Anand (Air-India).In the women's singles event, two AP players bowed out of the tournament. Promising Shruti Kuriean lostin straight games to Archana Deodhar (Maharashtra) while D Nivedita was routed by Asawari Patwardhan (Maharashtra).Second seeded Srikant Bakshi of Indian Railways overcame a fighting Mayur Ghatnekar of Maharashtra 18-17, 13-18, 15-8 and moved into the pre-quarter finals. Third seeded Abhinn Shyam Gupta of Air-India conceded only seven points to beat Roy Mathew of Kerala at 15-5, 15-2.RESULTSMen's singles (pre-quarterfinals): Nikhil Kanetkar (Mah) bt Mangrish Palekar (Rly) 15-12, 15-8; Sachin Rathi (Rly) bt Anuj Gupta (Rly) 15-12, 15-8; Ajit Wijetilak (Kar) bt Chetan Anand (Air-India) 15-4, 15-8.Women's singles (1st round): Archana Deodhar (Mah) bt Shruti Kurian (AP) 11-2, 11-8; Asawari Patwardhan (Mah) bt D Nivedita (AP) 11-1, 11-2; Manju T Abraham (Kar) bt Nirupa Bhide (MP) 11-4, 11-0.Men's singles (1st round): Nikhil Kanitkar (Mah) bt Ashish Chadda (Del) 15-6, 15-4; Mangrish Palekar (Rly) bt B Nagarajk (AP) 15-12, 15-13; Parag Modi (AI) bt Shiv Kumar (TN) 15-7,15-13; Sachin Ratti (Rly) bt JBS Vidyadhar (ap) 15-7, 17-14; Vijay Kanna (AP) bt Joy T Anthony (Ker) 15-12, 17-14; Anuj Gupta (Guj) bt PL Narayana (AP) 15-2, 15-4; Chetan Anand (AI) bt Prem Kumar Singh (AP) 15-9, 15-6; Ajit Wijetilek (Kar) bt M Subramanyan (Mah) 15-5, 15-3; Devender Dhillon (Del) bt Sree Shail (AP) 15-2, 15-8.
