Easy for top seeds

Top seed Abhinn Shyam Gupta of Petroleum Sports Control Board and second seed Sachin Ratti of Railways sailed into the men's singles third round in the NSCI Senior ranking badminton tournament in Mumbai on Wednesday.

International shuttler Abhinn sidelined C M Shashidhar of Railways 15-11, 15-9 while Ratti crushed K Srinivasan of Andhra Pradesh 15-8, 15-5. Third seed B S Vidyadhar of Railways rallied magnificiently, after dropping the first game 9-15, to pip Joy T Anthony of Kerala 9-15, 15-2, 15-4 in 40 minutes.

Women's top seed B R Meenakshi of PSCB was too good for Poonam Tiwari of Railways. Meenakshi won 11-5, 11-4 while her teammate and former national champion Manjusha Kanwar had to sweat it out before making it to the second round with a 11-0, 7-11, 11-8 win over Palkan Nagori of Railways.

Others who made it to the second round were Neha Makwana of Madhya Pradesh, Jwala Gutta, Shruthi Kurian and C H Deepthi (all three from PSCB), Saina Nehwal of Andhra Pradesh and Trupti Murgunde of Maharashtra.

In the men's singles, Hemant Duggal of Railways pipped Amar Mohite of Maharashtra 15-11, 15-5 while Arvind Bhatt of PSCB sidelined Jibi Varghese of Railways 15-6, 5-15, 15-9 on way to the second round.

Also making it to the next round were Nikhil Kanetkar of PSCB, S D S Krishna of Andhra Pradesh and Anup Sridhar of Karnataka.

Men's singles (2nd round): Abhin Shyam Gupta (PSCB) bt C M Shashidhar (Rlys) 15-11, 15-9; Hemant Duggal (Rlys) bt Amar Mohite (Mah) 15-11, 15-5; B S Vidyadhar (Rlys) bt Joy T Antony (Ker) 9-15, 15-2, 15-4; Arvind Bhatt (PSCB) bt Jibi Vargese (Rlys) 15-6, 5-15, 15-9; Nikhil Kanetkar (PSCB) bt Prashant Bhatare (Mah) 15-1, 15-5; S D S Krishna (AP) bt Siddharth Jain (PSCB) 15-11, 15-10; Anup Shridhar (KTK) bt Mayur Ghatnekar (Mah15-3, 15-4; Sachin Ratti (Rlys) bt K Srinivasan (AP) 15-8, 15-5.

Women's singles (2nd round): B R Meenakshi (PSCB) bt Poonam Tiwari (Rlys) 11-5, 11-4; Neha Makwana (MP) bt Soumya Padhye (Raj) 11-1, 11-2; Manjusha Kanwar (PSCB) bt Palkan Nagori (Rlys) 11-0, 7-11, 11-8; Jwala Gutta (PSCB) bt Sampada Ghatnekar (Rlys) 11-7, 11-2; Saina Nehwal (AP) bt Pooja Patil (KTK) 11-2, 11-4; Trupti Murgunde (Mah) bt Aparna Balan (Ker) 11-0, 11-3; C H Deepthi (PSCB) bt Archana Deodhar (Mah) 11-3, 11-8; Shruti Kurian (PSCB) bt Aditi Biswas (KTK) 11-1, 11-9.