Quarter-final stage set

Feb 3: Even as defending champions Railways await their semi-final opponents in the men and women's sections, four other squads in both s...

Feb 3: Even as defending champions Railways await their semi-final opponents in the men and women8217;s sections, four other squads in both sections will fight it out in the quarter-finals of the Indian Oil Servo inter-state National Badminton championships at the IG Stadium here tomorrow.

In the draw taken out for the Rahamatula Cup, Delhi men open their quarter-final campaign against Uttar Pradesh with Madhur Kalia, a junior player till last year, taking on Utsav Mishra in the first singles. In the other quarters, Kerala8217;s Jaison Xavier open against Ajanta Chaudhary of Assam.

In the Chadha Cup, with both Railways and Andhra Pradesh 8212; winners and runners-up 8212; having received quarter-final byes, Maharashtra8217;s Manjusha Kanwar meets Amrita Bhattacharya of Bengal. In the other match, Assam will take on Punjab.

Going by Delhi8217;s form, they should have little difficulty in putting it across Uttar Pradesh, whose hope of advancing into the next round rests solely on Sushant Saxena. The lanky Lucknow player has, to his credit, quite a number of wins both in the Nationals as well as in GP tourneys. On his day, he is capable of upsetting the best.

Delhi coach Vikram Singh said he was looking up to skipper Davinder Dhillon and the experienced Praveen Gehlawat to provide the spark in the singles. With the experienced Ajay Kanwar and Yoginder Singh pairing in the first doubles against Saxena and Mishra, things look bright for the hosts as Saxena is essentially a singles player. Even otherwise, Davinder and Gehlawat can recoup to pose some worry to the UP8217;s second pair of Ajay Mathur and Amit Mehrotra.

For Kerala, Jaison Xavier and K A Aneesh, their singles players, are in good form. They will be followed by the formidable pair of Markose Bristow and George Thomas, the left-right combination, to give Kerala a sound start against a new-look Assam squad.

In women, Maharashtra8217;s task should be easy, particularly after Manjusha8217;s entry into the side. Manjusha will also combine with Archana Deodhar in the doubles to make it one-sided affair against a weak Bengal team, consisting of Amrita Bhattacharya, Amirta, Debasree Dey and Sampa Saha,

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In the men8217;s singles qualifiers played today in the Open category, Pankaj Pandey Del, S.S. Kannan TN, Arvind Bhatt Kar, Abhishek Bakshi Kar, Vivek Gautam Mah, PSB Nagendra Kar, Alok Singh Mah and Sanket Shetty Mah made it to the main round. From among women, Kranti Sane Mah, Ketki Thakkar IA, Kripa Telang Mah and Nupura Bhide Mah made the grade.

The qualifiers among the mixed doubles included Ajay Kanwar/Manjusha Del, Leela Rani/P Vovershan and Mitesh Hazarnish and Ketki Thakkar AI.