Krishna, Monisha in main draw of Tata Open badminton

S D S Krishna and Monisha Vinayak, both of Karnataka, endured strong challengers in the final qualifying round before sealing berths in the

men's and women's main draw respectively, in the first Tata Open All India Badminton Tournament at the Bombay Gymkhana on Monday.

Krishna overcame Sai Praneeth of Andhra Pradesh 21-19, 21-17 in an exciting encounter to join the elite in the main draw that commences on Wednesday.

Krishna and Vinayak are two of five qualifiers from Karnataka who made it to the main draw in the men's and women's categories.

Joining Krishna in the main draw were compatriots Aditya Prakash and Mohit Kamat; Arun Nandaluri, N M Vinayak and Vinay Kumar Reddy of Andhra Pradesh and Ratikant Saha and Manish Rawat of Railways.

The eight men's qualifiers will join 24 others in the main draw of 32.

Monisha Vinayak ended the winning run of Sanyogita Ghorpade as she rallied to a thrilling 8-21, 22-20, 21-19 win in the women's category.

Ghorpade, who came through a tough first round against Radhika Reddy of Andhra Pradesh on Sunday, surprised Vinayak with an easy win in the opening game.

Stunned by the early deficit in the best-of-three games contest, Vinayak had to come up with a special effort in the next two games as Ghorpade refused to give up, including stretching the second game into extra points.

The other Karnataka shuttler to enter the women's main draw was GM Nischitha, who overcame Arundhati Pantawane of Maharashtra 21-19, 21-17 in another exciting tie.

In Wednesday's opening round, Nischitha runs into the formidable B R Meenakshi of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board.

Anjali Kalita of Assam and Anuradha Shrikhande of Air India completed the line-up of four women's qualifiers who join 20 shuttlers in the main draw of 24.

Results (Final Qualifying round):

Men: S D S Krishna (Ktk) bt Sai Praneeth (AP) 21-19, 21-17; Arun Nandaluri (AP) bt Mayank Bahal (Pun) 21-17, 17-21, 21-6; Ratikant Saha (Rlys) bt Oscar Bansal (Chd) 12-21, 21-17, 21-15; Manish Rawat (Rlys) bt Manjit Singh (Mah) 21-17, 23-21; Aditya Prakash (Ktk) bt Himanshu

Kharbanda (Del) 21-12, 21-8; Vinay Kumar Reddy (AP) bt Nihar Tilekar (Mah) 21-16, 21-16; NM Vinayak (AP) bt Pawan Malik (Cht) 27-25, 21-14; Mohit Kamat (Ktk) bt Abhinav Prakash (Del) 21-18, 21-17.

Women: Monisha Vinayak (Ktk) bt Sanyogita Ghorpade (Mah) 8-21, 22-20, 21-19; Anjali Kalita (Asm) bt Sonal More (Rlys) 21-14, 21-16; Nischitha GM (Ktk) bt Arundhati Pantawane (Mah) 21-19, 21-17; Anuradha Shrikhande (AI) bt Rimi Hazarika (Asm) 21-18, 13-21, 21-18.