Comeback man Chetan Anand advances in National Badminton qualifiers

Three-time national champion Chetan Anand began his comeback from an injury curtailed season with a comfortable 21-5, 21-15 victory over Vishal Garg of Assam in the second qualifying round of the 78th Senior National badminton championship organised by the Delhi Capital Badminton Association.

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation employee, who was once ranked in the world top-20, had been suffering from a knee injury for the last two years and had dropped down in the pecking order of the national rankings.

However, Chetan hardly broke sweat Monday as he aimed for atleast a last eight finish in the tournament.

Also winning their qualifying matches comfortably were former junior national champion Rohan Castelino of Karnataka and U-17 national champion Daniel Farid, who had recently also won the Junior Nationals U-19 Category in Chandigarh.

Results

Men's singles

2nd Round

Rohan Castelino, KTK, beat Sudhanshu Medsikar, MAH, 21-8 21-12; Bhaskar Chakraborty, DLI, beat Manas Ranjan Routray, ORI, 21-12 21-18; Rahul Yadav C., AP, beat Subramanian S., TN, 16-21 21-10 21-10; Siddharth, HAR, beat Prateek Saxena, RAJ, 21-14 21-18; Sachin Rawat, DLI, beat Karthikey K., KTK, 21-10 21-18; Himanshu Verma, CG, beat Yash Wagh, MAH, 15-21 21-13 21-17; Lakhwinder Singh, PNB, beat Ayush Maurya, UTR, 24-22 21-16; J.Trinadha, AP, beat Subadonbor Pyngrope, MEG, 21-11 21-16; Shreyansh Jaiswal, CG, beat Anand Tiwari, PNB, 21-10 21-18; Kawaldeep Singh, CHG, beat Yuvaraj, PY, 21-7 21-10; Aneeth Kumar R., AP, beat Ankit Arora, RAJ, 13-21 21-16 21-12; Daniel Farid S., KTK, beat Ameya Oak, MAH, 21-9 21-18; Venket Gaurav Pradad, CG, beat Mayuresh Borkotoky, ASM, 21-15 21-11; Saurav Kapoor, HAR, beat S. R. Viswanath Mantha, AP, 21-5 21-7; Gagan Sharma, DLI, beat Vikrant Chawat, RAJ, 21-13 21-13; Chirag Sen, AI, beat Mitun Das, ASM, 21-11 21-13; Aditya Prakash, KTK, beat Anurag Thakkar, MP, 21-9 21-7; Siddharath Thakur, MAH, beat Mohamed Rehan R., TN, 21-17 21-13.

Himanshu Kharbanda, DLI, beat Gyanchand, ORI, 21-4 21-13; Prem Singh Chouhan, RAJ, beat Harshit Agrawal, CG, 21-11 21-18; Chetan Anand B., PET, beat Vishal Garg, ASM, 21-5 21-15 .

Women's singles

2nd Round

Vrushali G., AP, beat Sheetal Kargeti, UTR, 28-26 21-7; Santoshi Hasini R., AP, beat Nischitha G. M., KTK, 21-18 21-10; Dhanya Nair, RLY, beat Rucha Nikam, MAH, 21-10 21-12; Pooja M., AP, beat Swati Sharma, UTR, 21-16 21-16; Vaishali Baria, GUJ, beat Brinda Singh, DLI, 21-12 21-8.