India jr international badminton: Top-seeded Anupama survives on day of upsets

Pune, Sep 1 (IANS) India's top-seeded Anupama Upadhaya struggled to survive on a day when five seeded players exited the women's singles event in the India Junior International Grand Prix 2022, and played in memory of the Late Sushant Chipalkatti, here on Thursday.

Day One of the main draw was ridden with upsets which included four foreigners out of five in the singles, apart from two in the mixed doubles events.

For Anupama, who began the week with a World rank of No.3, the challenge from Karnika Srees Suresh proved to be a tough ask and needed a little extra before coming through 14-21, 21-14, 22-20 in a 50-minute battle. The match also turned out to be the second longest match in the section.

While Anupama survived it was not the case for No. 8 Rasila Maharjan (Nepal), No. 10 Siti Zulaikha (Malaysia), No. 11. Devika Sihag (India), No. 13 Avishi Raina (Zimbabwe) and No. 14 Tan Zhing Hui, (Malaysia).

Interestingly, all seeds who were ousted lost to unseeded players in straight games with unseeded Akansha Matte downing Rasila Maharjan (Nepal) 21-10, 21-14; Radhika Sharma ending Siti Zulaikha (Malaysia) 21-16, 21-13, qualifier Tanvi Sharma putting out Devika Sihag 21-18, 22-20, Hiral Chouhan stopping Avishi Raina (Zimbabwe) 21-8, 21-9 and Neysa Cariappa. A, showing Tan Zhing Hui (Malaysia) the door with a 21-12, 21-9 win.

MIXED DOUBLES TOP PAIR FIRST TO EXIT

The day began with an upset in the first match of the day in the mixed doubles event with Malaysian duo Bryan Jeremy Goonting/Lee Xin Jie shocked the top-seeded Indian duo Ayan Rashid/ Mahek Nayak 21-8, 21-7 in a match that lasted 22 minutes.

Later, the event lost the No. 2 duo with India's unseeded pair Nathan Shieh/Shreya Balaji showing out Prince Dahal/Rasila Maharjan (Nepal) 21-13, 21-16.

NO. 3 AYAN RASHID SHOWN THE DOOR

The boys' singles had more upsets with eight seeds falling by the wayside which included two foreigners. The notable upset was the No. 3 seed, Ayan Rashid. In a rather one-sided encounter, Indonesia's Remus N.G beat Ayan Rashid 21-12, 21-12.

The other seeded players exiting were; No. 5 Patcharakit Apiratchataset (Thailand), No. 6 Venkata Uneeth Krishna Bhimavarapu, No. 9 Tanmoy Bikash Boruah, No. 12 Gnana Harsha Jetty, No. 14 Raju Ahmed, No. 15 Ashwani Singh, No. 16 Daksh Haldar (Uganda).

RESULTS

Men's Singles: 1-Prince Dahal Bt Asmit Agarwal 21-11, 21-19; 11-Tushar Suveer Bt Q-Venkata Sai Himadeep Amanchi 21-9, 21-13; Adisak Prasertphetmanee (Thailand) Bt 6-Venkata Uneeth Krishna Bhimavarapu 19-21, 23-21, 21-13; Q-Dhruv Negi Bt 15-Ashwani Singh 21-15, 21-11; Remus Ng (Indonesia) B 3-Ayan Rashid 21-12, 21-12; Darshan Pujari Bt 14-Raju Ahmed 21-12, 21-13; Harsh Anand Deshwal Bt 5-Patcharakit Apiratchataset (Thailand) 21-17, 21-19; Q-Pranay Shettigar Bt 9-Tanmoy Bikash Boruah 21-11, 21-15; Q-Neer Nehwal Bt 12-Gnana Harsha Jetty 21-10, 21-13; 7-Muhammad Halim As Sidiq (Indonesia) Bt Sarun Rukcharoen (Thailand) 21-11, 21-8; 13-Md Nazmul Islam Joy (Bangladesh) Bt Q-Ankit Malik 21-18, 21-13; 4-Lakshay Sharma Bt Aaron Tai (Malaysia) 23-21, 21-9; 10-Wongsup Wongsup-In (Thailand) Bt Sai Satya Sarvesh Yakala 14-21, 21-16, 21-15; 8-Ayush Shetty Bt Kshitiz Khanal 21-11, 21-12; Jason Homer (Sri Lanka) Bt 16-Daksh Haldar (Uganda) 21-5, 21-8; 2-Pranav Rao Gandham Bt Q-Himanish Das 21-16, 20-22, 21-18;

Women's Singles: 1-Anupama Upadhyaya Bt Karnika Srees Suresh 14-21, 21-14, 22-20; Neysa Cariappa. A Bt 14-Tan Zhing Hui (Mal) 21-12, 21-9; Akansha Matte Bt 8-Rasila Maharjan (Nep) 21-10, 21-14; Q-Sheena Narwal Bt Vennala Kalagotla 15-21, 21-18, 21-14; 15-Sreshta Reddy Kannareddy Bt Q-Farza Nazrin 21-13, 21-10; 4-Isharani Baruah Bt Thalita Ramadhani Wiryawan (Ina) 21-13, 21-17; 9-Sarunrak Vitidsarn (Tha) Bt Riya Habbu 21-12, 21-11; Q-Gloria V Athavale Bt Gayathri Rani Jaiswal 21-7, 21-9; Q-Aalisha Naik Bt Aafreen Bishnoi 21-9, 21-9; Radhika Sharma Bt 10-Siti Zulaikha (Mal) 21-16, 21-13;

Q-Tanvi Sharma Bt 11-Devika Sihag 21-18, 22-20; 6-Siti Nurshuhaini (Mal) Bt Shreya Lele 21-15, 21-16; Hiral Chouhan Bt 13-Avishi Raina (Zim) 21-8, 21-9; 3-Unnati Hooda Bt Q-Aesha Gandhi 21-12, 21-15; 12-Anyapat Phichitpreechasak (Tha) Bt Rakshitha Sree Santhosh Ramraj 21-16, 21-23, 21-19; Q-Stuti Agrawal Bt Kaur Mahnoor 17-21, 21-12, 21-17; 7-Tara Shah Bt Methini Vidhyasagar Deepa [Pfq] 21-16, 21-15; 16-Azzahra Melani Arjisetya (Ina) Bt Shrishti Gupta 21-10, 21-13; Q-Chitwan Khatri Bt Prashansa Bonam 21-16, 20-22, 21-16.

Mixed Doubles: Bryan Jeremy Goonting/Lee Xin Jie (Malaysia) Bt 1-Ayan Rashid/Mahek Nayak 21-8, 21-7; 7-Mayank Rana/Nardhana Ravishankar (India) Bt Arsh Mohammad/Gargi Gargi 21-17, 21-12; 5-Ojas Kumar Sehrawat/Hazel Sehrawat (India) Bt Himal Chand/Bishna Bista (Nepal) 18-21, 21-15, 21-12; Choi Jian Sheng/Vannee Gobi (Malaysia) Bt 8-Saketh Ramagouni/Sphoorthy Ramagouni (India) 21-17, 21-10; Prem Kumar Prabhu Raj Mohan/Kanishka Ganesan (India) Bt 3-Pruthvi Koka/Muskaan Khan 21-14, 12-21, 21-19; Hari Bharathi Baskaran. P/Dhanyaa Nandakumar (India) Bt 6-Garv Sahni/Anagha Aravinda Pai 21-15, 21-13; Nathan Shieh/Shreya Balaji (India) Bt 2-Prince Dahal/Rasila Maharjan (Nepal) 21-13, 21-16.