Senior Badminton Nationals: Unseeded Rounak Chauhan, Adarshini Shri reach semis; Anmol Kharb knocked out

The top six women’s singles seeds bowed out in a moving day at the Senior Badminton Nationals on Sunday.

Chhattisgarh’s Rounak Chauhan and Tamil Nadu’s Adarshini Shri NB continued their giant-killing run by upsetting much higher ranked opponents to reach the men’s and women’s singles semifinals of the 86th Senior National Badminton Championship on Sunday.

Chauhan defeated 14th seed Alap Mishra, who had knocked out second seed Ayush Shetty in the morning, 21-10, 21-16 in the men’s singles quarterfinals while Adarshini got the better of Shreya Lele 23-21, 21-12.

In the semifinals, Chauhan will face former national champion Mithun Manjunath, who hammered Sankar Saraswat 21-9,21-9 while Adarshini will face off against 13th seed Devika Sihag, who got the better of Rujula Ramu 17-21, 21-19, 21-16.

None of the top eight seeds in women’s singles will feature in the last four stage after Gujarat’s Tasnim Mir followed up her win over top seed Aakarshi Kashyap in the morning with yet another fine display to defeat seventh seed Isharani Baruah 21-16, 21-18. She will now face Shriyanshi Valishetty in the semifinals.

The top mixed doubles pairing of Sathish Kumar K and Adya Variyath were also knocked out at the quarterfinals stage as they went down 21-16, 19-21, 21-14 against the experienced combination of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani.

Sathish Kumar, who recently won the Guwahati Masters Super 100 crown, remained on course for a singles title as he defeated Kaushal Dharmamer 21-11, 21-12 to reach the semifinals.

Earlier, the day saw major upsets in the women’s singles category as all the top six seeds were knocked out in the morning session.

Defending champion Anmol Kharb, who recently reached the finals of the Guwahati Masters Super 100 tournament, was defeated by 12th seed Shriyanshi Valishetty 21-12, 21-15 while 16th seed Tasnim Mir packed-off top seed Aakarshi Kashyap 21-19, 21-17.

On the other courts, 15th seed Shreya Lele continued her impressive run in Bengaluru as she came from a game down to beat former champion and second seed Anupama Upadhaya 13-21, 21-18, 21-14, 13th seed Devika Sihag kept her composure to beat fourth seed and last edition runners-up Tanvi Sharma 21-19, 21-18.

unseeded Rujula Ramu accounted for fifth seed Mansi Singh 21-19, 20-22, 21-13 and 14th seed Sakshi Phogat ended the campaign of sixth seed Adita Rao 21-18, 21-19.

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