Badminton: Rasika knocks out Saili

Rasika Raje of Maharastra authored the day's only upset win when she defeated fifth seeded Saili Rane of Air India 21-19, 21-15 en route to the quarter-finals of the women's singles in the Canara Bank All-India ranking badminton tournament here Thursday.

Meanwhile, the top seeds Varma Saurabh (Petroleum) and Arundhati Pantawane (Maharashtra) chalked up fluent victories in the men's and women's singles pre-quarter-final rounds, respectively,

Saurabh accounted for Delhi's Ashish Sharma 21-8, 21-17, while Pantawane overcame Trupti Murgunde (Petroleum) who after losing the first game 11-21, and leading 17-6, in the second, retired due to injury.

The results (pre-quarter-finals):

Men's singles: 1-Varma Sourabh (PET) bt Ashish Sharma (DLI) 21-8, 21-17; 8-Subhankar Dey (MAH) bt Chirag Sen (AI) 19-21, 21-13, 21-11; Moheet Kamat (RLY) bt Srujan Nandaluri (AP) 21-16, 21-11; 6-Sameer Verma (MP) bt Aditya Prakash (KTK) 21-19, 23-21; 7-Arvind Bhat (KTK) bt Shreyansh Jaiswal (CHG) 15-21, 21-12, 21-13; ASS Siril Varma (AP) bt Abhishek Yeligar (KTK) 21-23, 21-19, 21-6; Chetan Anand (PET) bt Oscar Bansal (CHG) 21-14, 21-9; 2-Anup Sridhar (KTK) bt Talar Laa (AI) 21-11, 21-11.

Women's singles: 1-Arundhati Pantawane (MAH) bt Trupti Murgunde (PET) 21-11, 6-17 retd; 8-Mudra Dhainje (AI) bt Kanthi Visalakshi (TN) 21-10, 21-18; 3-Tanvi Lad (AI) bt Anita Ohlan (RLY) 21-13, 21-9; 6-Neha Pandit (AI) bt Vrushali G (AP) 21-12, 16-21, 21-11; Aditi Mutatkar, (PET) bt Shriyanshi Pardeshi (MP) 21-16, 21-14; 4-Sayali Gokhale (AI) bt Reshma Karthik (AI) 21-19, 21-7; Rasika Raje (MAH) bt 5-Saili Rane (AI) 21-19, 21-15; 2-Rituparna Das (AP) bt Karishma Wadkar (MAH) 21-9, 21-8.