Top seed Bhat completes on-court formalities

Bang in the middle of his match,Aravind Bhat could afford to worry about his kit-bag getting wet.

Bang in the middle of his match,Aravind Bhat could afford to worry about his kit-bag getting wet. Once the court was mopped up,it didnt take the mens top seed much longer to clear his path to the third round of the senior badminton nationals.

Bhat,attempting to bury that losing-finalist ghost that has haunted him four times in the last seven years,started just like he would have wanted to 8211; quick,clinical,and confident in his 21-5,21-3 demolition of Chhattisgarhs Ajay Dayal.

Frankly,the first match of a big tournament like the nationals ought to be just a formality, Bhat said after his 18-minute stroll. The idea is to keep at your level of play.

Making Dayal play to his terms,Bhat was up 20-2 before three loose points helped Dayal delay the inevitable. At 5-20,though,the Chhattisgarh player sent his serve sailing long.

The scores in the second game went along the same lines Bhat started with just keeping the shuttle in play,then moving on to some smashing practice before finally making an error to lose his first point at 10-0. With Dayal never coming to terms with the guile,Bhat gave his half-smashes an airing at 17-2 up. He finished the second-round match with a backhand-dominant rally,21-3.

Bhat continued to insist that the idea was not to look at the big picture yet,but fit in the pieces of the nationals puzzle as they came. With Chetan Anand absent,the path might have been made easier,but hes not naming himself favourite just yet. There are ten guys who could win this tournament. With Anand not there,I would just say that my task is ten per cent easier, Bhat said.

Fourth seed Anand Pawar was given a big scare in his second round by Keralas Thomas Kurien,when a rousing fight in the first game was followed by a charged up Kurien dominating the second. But playing with the authority of a higher seed in the deciding game,Pawar ensured there was no upset,winning it 21-18,12-21,21-14.

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Womens top seed Neha Pandit,on court almost three hours later than scheduled after the mornings inauguration delayed the start of matches,wasnt held too long either. Using more trickery than aggression,Maharashtras Pandit won 21-12,21-9. Second seed Trupti Murgunde got a walkover from Jammu and Kashmirs Akansha.

Results

Singles second round

Men: Aravind Bhat 1 bt Ajay Dayal 21-5 21-3; Anup Sridhar 2 bt Shirikant Bakshi 21-11 21-7; P Kashyap 3 bt Sarfraz Azam 21-7 21-10; Anand Pawar 4 bt Thomas Kurien 21-18 12-21 21-14; Ajay Jayaram 5 bt Ashutosh TIwari 21-7 21-9; JBS Vidyadhar 6 bt Vivek Sharma 21-13 21-17; Guru Sai Dutt 7 bt Sidharth Jain 21-4 21-8; Sachin Ratti 8 bt Eshan Naqvi 21-11 21-15; Saurav Kapoor 10 bt Ratikant Saha 21-9 21-16.

Women: Neha Pandit 1 beat Jyotiswaroopa V 21-12 21-9; Trupti Murgunde 2 bt Akansha w/o; Gayatri Vatak 3 bt Uma Tamang 21-7 21-6; Sayali Gokhale 4 bt Rani Singh 21-8 21-7; Dhanya Nair 5 bt Rachita Sahdev 21-4 21-4; Ruthmisha V 6 bt Priyana Patel 21-10 21-13; Anuradha Shirkhande bt Abantika Deka 7 21-16 14-7 retd; Sampada Sahsrabudhe 8 bt Hamsica R 21-11 21-13; Ashwini Ponappa 9 bt Seema Patwal 21-7 21-10; N Sikki Reddy 10 bt Sheshadri Sanyal 21-15 21-13.