Badminton Nationals | Ayush Shetty eases into pre-quarterfinals

Ayush Shetty was in full flow. , Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR

Second seed Ayush Shetty entered the men’s singles last-16 with a comfortable 21-12, 21-13 victory over Tamil Nadu’s S. Kishore at the 2024 Senior National Badminton Championship at the KBA courts here on Saturday.

The 19-year-old from Railways shrugged off the tight defeat to Karnataka’s S. Bhargav in the team championship final two days ago in fine fashion. The win over Kishore was his second of the day, having beaten Punjab’s Shikhar Rallan in the morning by an equally lopsided 21-14, 21-6 scoreline in a round-of-64 clash.

Women’s top seed Aakarshi Kashyap also had a safe passage into the pre-quarterfinals, thrashing Uttar Pradesh’s Taranjeet Kaur 21-14, 21-8.

The 23-year-old from Chhattisgarh had a slightly tougher round-of-64 rubber against Chandigarh’s Rijul Saini which she managed to win 19-21, 21-12, 21-13. But against Taranjeet, she played a near-perfect match, displaying an array of deceptive half-smashes and delicate dribbles to leave her opponent bamboozled.

Select results (round of 32): Men: K. Sathish Kumar (TN) bt Ajay Nair (Ker) 21-9, 21-12; Ayush Shetty (Rly) bt S. Kishore (TN) 21-12, 21-13; Manraj Singh (Har) bt S. Bhargav (Kar) 21-11, 21-13; Rounak Chouhan (Chg) bt DS Saneth (Kar) 21-11, 21-16; S. Rithvik Sanjeevi (TN) bt Chirag Sen (Rly) 12-21, 21-19, 21-15; Mithun Manjunath (Rly) bt Samarveer (Chd) 18-21, 21-17, 21-15; M. Raghu (Kar) bt Pranay Katta (Raj) 21-18, 18-21, 21-13; Sanskar Saraswat (Raj) bt Arya Bhivpathaki (Mah) 21-16, 21-15; Lakshay Sharma (Pun) bt Tushar Suveer (Kar) 12-21, 21-14, 21-18.

Women: Aakarshi Kashyap (Chg) bt Taranjeet Kaur (UP) 21-14, 21-8; Anmol Kharb (Har) bt Krishika Mahajan (J&K) 21-14, 21-14; Tanvi Sharma (Pun) bt Swati Solanki (MP) 21-12, 21-8; Adita Rao (Guj) bt Sadhana Fenelon (TN) 21-8, 16-21, 21-12; Tasnim Mir (Guj) bt Medhavi Nagar (Har) 19-21, 21-10, 21-13; Isharani Baruah (ASM) bt Navya Kanderi (AP) 21-13, 21-15; Devika Sihag (Har) bt K. Sreshta Reddy (Tel) 21-19, 24-22; Mansi Singh (UP) bt K. Vennala (Tel) 21-15, 21-19; Anupama Upadhyaya (Del) bt Ilishaa Pal (Kar) 20-22, 21-16, 21-8; Aalisha Naik (Mah) bt S. Sneha (Kar) 21-18, 21-10.