Krishna being lifted by her supporters after her upset victory on Sunday. Picture by Eastern Projections

badminton nationals

Guwahati, Feb. 2: Unseeded Krishna Deka Raja of hosts Assam stood tall among the ruins after compatriots Bahniman Bora and Pallav Deka licked their wounds on the sidelines on Day III of the Indian Oil senior national badminton championship at the Kanaklata indoor stadium here today.

Krishna, the junior national champion, upset seventh seed Manjusha Kanwar 11-4, 9-11 and 11-9 to set up a clash with top seed B.R. Meenakshi in the quarterfinals tomorrow. Giantkiller Krishna had yesterday beaten 11th seed Neha Makwana.

But Assam’s challenge in the men’s filed ended with the Bahniman losing to Ravinder Singh 9-15, 8-15 in over an hour, while Pallav was beaten by defending champion and third seed Abhinn Shyam Gupta 8-15, 2-15 in 45 minutes.

The other upsets of the day, sixth seed Thomas Kurien lost to Arup Vaidya of Railways and 12th seed Rupesh Kumar of Kerala was beaten by S.D.S. Krishna of Andhra Pradesh.

In the women’s doubles, the Assam-Maharashtra pair of Oli Deka and Trupti Murgunde made it to the quarterfinals, defeating Gauri Choudhury and Ruchi Kapil of Uttar Pradesh 11-2, 11-6.

Twelfth seed Fatima Nazneen of Kerala pulled off a 11-4, 5-11, 3-11 win over Assam girl Bibari Basumatary, who had upset Hyderabad Games runners-up and third seed Jwala Gutta of PSPB in the third round.

Co-sponsors of the meet, North Eastern Council, has given Rs 5 lakh today to the Assam Badminton Association for the meet.

RESULTS

Men’s singles (Round III): Chetan Anand beat Arul Sundaram (15-10, 15-5), V. Diju beat Amar Mohite (15-4, 12-15, 17-15), Sanave Thomas beat Jai Singh (15-12, 15-14), Jibi Verghese beat Anuj Gupta (15-6, 10-15, 15-4), Arvind Bhatt beat Abhijit Naimpally (13-15, 15-10, 15-9), Anup Sridhar beat Manmeet Singh (15-6, 15-7), J.B.S. Vidyadhar beat Sanket Shetty (15-5, 15-4), Ravinder Singh beat Bahniman Bora (15-9, 15-8), Nikhil Kanetkar beat Rituparna Kulkarni (15-2, 15-2), C.M. Sashidhar beat Devinder Dhillon (15-1, 15-5), S.D.S. Krishna beat Rupesh Kumar (17-14, 11-15, 15-6), Abhinn Shyam Gupta beat Pallav Deka (15-8, 15-2), Joy T. Anthony beat Himandhu Thakkar (15-10, 15-13), Arup Vaidya beat Thomas Kurien (15-12, 3-15, 15-2), Utsav Mishra beat Vijay Lancy (10-15, 15-9, 15-5), Sachin Ratty beat Hemant Duggal (15-9, 15-8). Women’s pre-quarterfinals: B.R. Meenakshi beat Barnali Raha (13-10, 11-0), Krishna Deka Raja beat Manjusha Kanwar (11-4, 9-11, 11-9), Fatima Nazneen beat Bibari Basumatary (4-11, 11-5, 11-3).