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World No.50 Sai Praneeth will be the star attraction of the ONGC All India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament which gets underway in Bangalore tomorrow.
The tournament, to be held on the newly-laid courts at K Raheja Stadium, will be held from January 29th to February 2nd. ONGC has, for the first time, sponsored an All India Senior Badminton Tournament in Bangalore. The event has attracted more than 400 players from 21 states.
The top-seeded Praneeth will be challenged by second seed Sourabh Verma, while Mohit Kamat (3) and Arvind Bhat (4) will hope to surprise the favourites. Others to watch would be Pratul Joshi (5), HS Prannoy (6) and Anup Sridhar (7).
In the women’s singles, Neha Pandit has been top-seeded, followed by PC Thulasi (2), Trupti Murgunde (3) and Tanvi Lad (4). The paired events feature some of the top doubles players in the country, with the exception of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa. London Olympian V Diju will be pairing up with Alwin Francis in the men’s doubles event.
Neha Pandit is the top seeded women’s player
The men’s singles winner will receive R 40,000 of the total prize money of Rs 3 lakh, while the women’s singles winner will take home Rs 30,000. The qualifying rounds are scheduled for January 29th and 30th and will feature over 250 matches in five events (men’s singles & doubles; women’s singles & doubles and mixed doubles) to qualify for the eight slots in the singles and doubles events. The main draw matches will commence from January 31st with the finals being played on February 2nd.
Seedings:
Men’s Singles: 1-Sai Praneeth (PET); 2-Sourabh Verma (PET); 3-Mohit Kamat (Rly); 4-Arvind Bhat (Ktk); 5-Pratul Joshi (AI); 6-HS Prannoy (Rly); 7-Anup Sridhar (Ktk); 8-Aditya Prakash (Ktk)
Women’s Singles: 1-Neha Pandit (AAI); 2-Thulasi PC (Ker); 3-Trupti Murgunde (PET); 4-Tanvi Lad (PET); 5-Arundhati Pantawane (Mah); 6-Mohita Sahdev (AAI); 7-Saili Rane (AI); 8-Riya Pillai (Mah)
Men’s Doubles: 1-Tarun Kona/Arun Vishnu; 2-Akshay Dewalkar/Pranaav Chopra; 3-Guru Prasad/ Vineet Manuel; 4-Alwin Francis/ V Diju
Women’s Doubles: 1-Prajakta Sawant/Arathi Sara Sunil; 2-Nischitha GM/Sneha Santhilal; 3-Sanyogita Ghorpade/Maneesha K; 4-Varsha Belawadi/Mohita Sahdev
Mixed Doubles: 1-Arun Vishnu/Aparna Balan; 2-Pranaav Chopra/Maneesha K; 3-Vijay Aloysius/Suneri K; 4-Akshay Dewalkar/Pradyna Gadre
