Unseeded S D S Krishna of Andhra Pradesh caused the first major upset when he ousted third seed Sanave Thomas of Kerala 15-12, 15-8 in 30 minutes on way to the second round of men's singles in Rs 400,000 NSCI All India Major badminton tournament in Mumbai on Tuesday.
In another first round match, qualifier Siddharth Jain of Petroleum Sports Control Board rallied magnificiently after dropping the first game 5-15, to pip Pallav Deka of Assam 5-15, 15-9, 15-7 in 50 minutes.
In another interesting match, K Srinivasan of Andhra Pradesh came from behind to oust qualifier Ansuman Hazarika of Assam 14-17, 15-5, 15-4 while top seed and international shuttler Abhinn Shyam Gupta of PSCB crushed Nimish Goel of Madhya Pradesh 15-0, 15-7 to enter the second round.
Another international, Nikhil Kanetkar of PSCB too had an easy time beating Anuj Gupta of Gujarat 15-1, 15-8 while Nikhil's teammate Arvind Bhatt had to sweat it out before sidelining wild card Anand Pawar of Maharashtra 15-8, 9-15, 15-8 on way to the second round.
Also storming into the next round with straight games wins were C M Sashidhar, Jibi Verghese, Hemant Duggal and J B S Vidyadhar (all four from Railways), Joy T Anthony of Kerala, Amar Mohite, Prashant Bhatare and Mayur Ghatnekar (all three from Maharashtra) and Anup Sridhar of Karnataka.
Results (men's singles) first round: Abhinn Shyam Gupta (PSCB) bt Nimish Goel (MP) 15-0, 15-7; C M Shashidar (Rlys) bt Abhijeet Nampalli (Knt) 15-2, 15-12; Amar Mohite (Mah) bt V Diju (Rlys) 15-3, 15-6; Hemant Duggal (Rlys) bt Rupesh Kumar (Ker) 15-6, 15-9; J B S Vidyadhar (Rlys) bt Rutupurna Kulkarni (Mah) 15-4, 15-5; Joy T Anthony (Ker) bt Swapnil Vyavaharkar (Mah) 15-2, 15-7; Arvind Bhatt (PSCB) bt Anand Pawar (Mah) 15-8, 9-15, 15-8; Jibi Varghese (Rlys) bt Amrish Shinde (Mah) 15-3, 15-0; Prashant Bhatare (Mah) bt Sanket Shetty (Mah) 15-12, 17-16; Nikhil Kanetkar (PSCB) bt Anuj Gupta (Guj) 15-1, 15-8; Anup Sridhar (Knt) bt Himanshu Thakkar (Mah) 15-6, 15-11; S D S Krishna (AP) bt Sanave Thomas (Ker) 15-12 15-8; Siddharth Jain (PSCB) bt Pallav Deka (Asm) 5-15, 15-9, 15-7; Mayur Ghatnekar (Mah) bt G Guruprasad (Knt) 15-14, 15-7; K Srinivasan (AP) bt Ansuman Hazarika (Asm) 14-17, 15-5, 15-4.
More from rediff