Bangalore, Feb 6:
Ace Indian shuttler Ashwini Ponappa’s challenge in the women’s singles ended after losing out to Arundhati Pantawane in the main draw of the Canara Bank All-India Senior Ranking badminton tournament, here today.
The unseeded Ashwini fought her heart out against top seed Arundhati, but lost the encounter 19-21, 18-21.
Return to the singles event after a gap of four years probably played into the mind of the Bangalore girl as she lost nerve at the closing stages of both the sets.
Arundhati, who is known for her exploits on the court, remain composed to outsmart Ashwini and reach the next round.
Apart from Arundhati, all other top seeded players – Rituparna Das (2), Tanvi Lad (3), Sayali Gokhale (4), Saili Rane (5), Neha Pandit (6) and Mudra Dhainje (8) – beat their opponents rather comfortably.
While Rituparna defeated Ekata Kalia 21-7 21-18, Tanvi overwhelmed V Ruth Misha of Karnataka 21-13 21-10. Sayali trounced Sanchali Dasgupta 21-8 21-14 and Saili thumped Kunnath Jacqueline Rose 21-15 21-11.
Neha had to battle it out in the first set, but pocketed the second easily as she defeated D Pooja 21-18 21-8.
In the men’s singles, top seed Sourabh Verma was on the verge of extending the match to the third set after his opponent Danielo Farid gave him a tough fight in the second set. He, however, won the match 21-8, 21-19.
Second seed Anup Sridhar thrashed Siddharath Thakur 21-9 21-16 while eighth seed Subhankar Dey defeated Hirak Jyoti Neog 21-9 21-10.
Sixth seed Sameer Verma of Madhya Pradesh smashed Manish Gupta out of the game 21-7 21-10, and seventh seed Arvind Bhat earned a walkover from K Ajay Kumar of Andhra Pradesh to enter the next round. (PTI)
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