Palekar pulls off stunning victory

BANGALORE, July 19: Mangrish Palekar Railways emerged hero on Day One when he upset No 2 seed Abhinshyam Gupta AI in straight games 1...

BANGALORE, July 19: Mangrish Palekar Railways emerged hero on Day One when he upset No 2 seed Abhinshyam Gupta AI in straight games 18-14, 15-8 in the BPL All-India Open Badminton Championships at the Karnataka Badminton Association courts, here, today.

Defending champion and top seed P Gopichand IOC made short work of JBS Vidyadhar AP 15-5, 15-7 while sixth seed Karnataka8217;s Ajit Wijetilak was stretched by Ambrish Shinde Maharashtra 8-15, 15-7, 15-3.

Other prominent players who maAmong women, top seed Aparna Popat Karnataka took just nine minutes to crush statemate EB Nandini 11-1, 11-0 to reach the quarter-finals. Second seed Manjusha Kanwar curbed the challenge of Karnataka8217;s Pooja Patil 11-6, 11-6 while third seed Neelima Choudhary AP cruised through with a 11-5, 11-1 win over Statemate D Swetha.

RESULTS: Seedings in prefix:

Men8217;s singles pre-quarterfinals: 1-P Gopichand IOC bt JBS Vidyadhar AP 15-5, 15-7, 5-Sachin Ratti Rly bt CM Shashidhar AP 15-5, 15-12, 4-SrikantBakshi Rly bt Anuj Gupta ONGC 15-6, 15-10, 6-Ajit Wijetilak Kar bt Amrish Shinde Mah 8-15, 15-7, 15-3, 8-Chetan Anand A-I bt Davinder Dhillon Del 18-14, 15-10, 3-Nikhil Kanetkar IOC bt Jaison Xavier Ker 15-5, 15-5, 7-Sushant Saxena UP bt Vincent Lobo ONGC 7-15, 15-13, 15-5, Mangrish Palekar Rly bt 2-Abhinshyam Gupta 18-14, 15-8.

1st round: P Gopichand IOC bt PSB Nagendra Kar 15-6, 15-4, JBS Vidyadhar AP bt Joy T Antony Ker 12-15, 15-12, 15-9, Sachin Ratti Rly bt Ravender Singh AI 15-9, 15-10, CM Shashidhar AP bt Parag Modi Rly 18-16, 15-7, Srikant Bakshi Rly bt Arvind Bhat Kar 16-18, 15-4, 17-14, Anuj Gupta ONGC bt Mayur Ghatnekar Mah 15-10, 15-13, Ajit Wijetilak Kar bt KA Anish Ker 18-15, 15-10, Ambrish Shinde Mah bt Ashish Chadda Dli 15-7, 15-3, Davinder Dhillon Del bt Sanket Shetty Mah 15-13, 18-13, Chetan Anand A-I bt Vijay Khanna AP 15-10, 15-12, Jaison Xavier Ker bt Thomas Kurian Rly 15-10, 3-15, 15-6, Nikhil Kanetkar IOC bt KumardevRajmanya Kar 15-9, 15-6, Vincent Lobo ONGC bt Harish Chander Rly 15-6, 15-5, Sushant Saxena UP bt Abhishek Bakshi Kar 15-3, 15-9, Mangrish Palekar A-I bt G Praveen Del 10-15, 15-6, 15-8, Abhinshyam Gupta A-I bt D Guruprasad Kar 15-4, 15-8.

Women8217;s singles 1st round: Ketaki Thakkar A-I w/o Parul Priyadarshini UP, Shalaka Damle A-I bt Kirti Kadam Mah 11-1, 11-3, Manju T Abraham Kar bt Vinaya Shetty Mah 11-5, 4-1 conceded, Divya Ramesh AI w/o Nupura Bhide MP.

Pre-quarterfinals: 1-Aparna Popat Kar bt EB Nandini Kar 11-1, 11-0, BR Meenakshi Rly bt Ketaki Thakkar A-I 0-11, 11-5, 11-6, 4-PVV Lakshmi AP bt Trupti Murgunde 11-4, 11-1, Nirmal Kotnis A-I bt Shalaka Damle A-I 12-11, 10-12, 11-6, Sampada Shetye A-I bt Manju T Abraham 11-6, 11-4, 3-Neelima Choudhary AP bt D Shweta AP 11-5, 11-1, CH Deepti Rly bt Divya Ramesh Kar 11-7, 11-7, 2-Majusha Kanwar IOC bt Pooja Patil Kar 11-6, 11-6.