Ajinkya cruises into quarterfinals

BENGALURU: Top seed Ajinkya Joshi made short work of

Kavish Chengappa AD

to storm into the quarterfinals of the boys U-15 category in the R Subbanna Memorial and

Yonex State Badminton Championships

on Sunday. Joshi, who trains at Rajan's Badminton Academy, defeated his rival 21-15, 21-13 at the Karnataka Badminton Association courts.

In the U-13 category, ninth-seeded Tarun Morab came from behind to upset third seed Aditya Diwakar 12-21, 21-16, 21-17 to enter the last-eight stage. It was plain sailing for the other seeded players led by the fancied Ayush Shetty.

Among the girls, DYES trainee Janani Ananthkumar, stunned sixth seed Niyati Prabhu N 15-21, 21-15, 21-14 in the U-15 category while Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy girl Shraddha Hegde got the better of Kushi Athreya 21-13, 21-17.

Also advancing to the quarterfinals were Medha Shashidharan, Tanya Hemanth, Ananya Praveen, Kriti Bharadwaj, Richa Muktibodh and second seed Keerthana P Shroff. The quarterfinals will be held on Monday morning before the players return to the courts in the afternoon to determine who plays in the title clash.

In the girls U-13 event, 12th seed Ritu Shah of Tom’s Badminton Academy ended the campaign of sixth seed Riddhi Sunil Shah 21-12, 21-8 to make the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Shraddha too advanced with a facile 21-17, 21-9 win over Divitha Shetty U.

Results: Boys: U-15: Pre-quarterfinals: Ajinkya Joshi bt Kavish Chengappa AD 21-15, 21-13; Pruthvi Roy K bt Suhas V 21-14, 21-15; Bhuvan Rajesh bt Saneeth S Dayanand 22-20, 21-15; Madhav Nayak bt Jayanth G 21-17, 15-21, 21-18; Vishesh Sharma bt Prithvi Shet 21-14, 24-22; Chinmaya Venkatesh bt Chiranjeevi Reddy S 21-14, 21-11; Naren S Iyer bt Kishal Ganapathy 21-8, 21-9; Saket CS bt Manan Mehta P 21-13, 21-18.

U-13: Pre-quarterfinals: Ayush Shetty bt Adithya Pradeep 21-8, 21-7; Sumukh GS bt Rishabh Jeppu 21-11, 21-18; Tarun Morab bt Aditya Diwakar 12-21, 21-16, 21-17; Nicholas Nathan Raj bt Aditya Patil 22-20, 21-16; Santrupth HV bt Dhruv Prasanna 21-14, 21-10; Sujnyan Ulhas Kini bt Satvik Shankar 24-26, 21-11, 21-11; Tushar Suveer bt Siva Teja RN 21-10, 19-21, 21-12; Sujal S bt Goutham M 21-16, 21-18.

Girls: U-15: Pre-quarterfinals: Medha Shashidharan bt Vijetha Harish 21-16, 21-7; Tanya Hemanth bt Pearl Sharma 21-16, 21-7; Ananya Praveen bt Kisha Kothari 21-10, 21-10; Kriti Bharadwaj bt Varsha Bhat 21-14, 21-12; Janani Ananthkumar bt Niyati Prabhu N 15-21, 21-15, 21-14; Richa Muktibodh bt Roshni Venkat 21-19, 21-12; Shraddha Hegde bt Kushi Athreya 21-13, 21-17; Keerthana P Shroff bt Kruthika Devi S 21-3, 21-9.

U-13: Pre-quarterfinals: Vijetha Harish bt Sohini Kayal 21-10, 21-3; Arya Hariharan bt Arushi Rajagopala 21-9, 21-16; Gloria Athavale V bt Shreya K 21-10, 21-12; Karnika Sree S bt Nivedha Shriram 21-13, 21-10; Ritu Shah bt Riddhi Sunil Shah 21-12, 21-8; Neysa Cariappa A bt Thanushree Anand 21-6, 21-1; Gayathri Rani Jaiswal bt Anannya Joishy 18-21, 21-14, 21-12; Shraddha Hegde bt Divitha Shetty U 21-17, 21-9.