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Bangalore: Defending men’s singles champion Arvind Bhat was vanquished by a foe he’d beaten last week, but women’s singles champ Aditi Mutatkar survived by the skin of her teeth in pre-quarterfinal action at the National Badminton Championships here on Monday.
Bhat, who had beaten Anand Pawar in the inter-state team event final, was handed the same treatment as Pawar made it surprisingly one-sided in a 21-9 21-19 result. Aditi Mutatkar, however, overcame the tenacious Tanvi Lad to prevail in a cracker of a match, 24-22 18-21 23-21. The match went for 1-1/2 hours.
Meanwhile, in other matches, top seed Sourabh Verma progressed as expected, facing little trouble against Rohit Yadav, but fellow-contender Guru Sai Dutt was run close by Mohit Kamat of Railways. Mohit seemed to have the upper hand through the first two sets, but blew his opportunity at crucial stages and was eventually run over in the third game.
Guru, the 2008 World Junior semifinalist, is one of the highest-rated players in the country, but Mohit seemed to have his measure. His defence was strong enough to ward off Guru’s attack, and his own attack went unanswered. Lapses of concentration however cost him dear and he lost the first game. He recovered in the second to overwhelm Guru, leaving the 12th seeded Hyderabadi searching for answers. However, inexplicably, the third game was a washout as he blew one point after another. “I just lost my concentration,” said Mohit. “In some phases I was dominating him, but in the third game I just couldn’t focus.”
The other exciting encounter of the day had Karnataka’s Aditya Prakash saving six match points against K Nandagopal, only to fall to the seventh.The men’s singles therefore will have a new champion this year. That can’t be said of the women’s singles, as three champions — Trupti Murgunde, Sayali Gokhale and Aditi Mutatkar — are in the quarterfinals.
Quarterfinals: Men’s Singles: 1-Sourabh Verma vs 15-Akshit Mahajan; 4-HS Prannoy vs 8-K Nandagopal; Anand Pawar vs 12-Guru Sai Dutt; K Srikanth vs 2-Sai PraneethWomen’s Singles: 1-PC Thulasi vs 9-PV Sindhu; 4-Aditi Mutatkar vs 8-Mohita Sachdev; Daya Elsa Jacob vs 3-Sayali Gokhale; 12-Trupti Murgunde vs 2-Neha Pandit
