Lakshya, Harsheel enter pre-quarters at Senior Nationals

Young Indian shuttlers Lakshya Sen and Harsheel Dani progressed to the men's singles pre-quarterfinals with contrasting wins at the 83rd Yonex Sunrise Senior National Championship here Wednesday.

Lakshya, who won an Asian Junior Championship and bronze at World Junior Championship last year, completed a clinical 21-10 21-10 win over Arintap Dasgupta of West Bengal.

Harsheel, who had clinched the Ghana International in 2018, had to dig deep to secure a 16-21 21-18 21-8 win over Kartikey in another match.

Former champions Sourabh Varma and Rituparna Das also entered the pre-quarterfinals after notching up straight-game wins.

Sourabh beat Munawer Mohammed 21-13 21-14 after staving off a fight from eighth seed Jagadeesh K 18-21 21-11 21-15 earlier in the day.

Rituparna brushed aside Namita Pathania 21-10 21-7 to enter the final 16. She had defeated Saloni Kumari 21-14 21-15 to enter the fourth round.

Fast-rising shuttler Gayatri, daughter of chief India coach Pullela Gopichand, however, lost 17-21 17-21 to Riya Mookerjee.

Among others, Rahul Yadav C, Alap Mishra, Aryamann Tandon, Kaushal Dharmamer and Rohit Yadav C also advanced to the pre-quarterfinals in the men's singles.

In the women's singles, Malvika Bansod, Vaidehi Choudhari, Vaishnavi Bhale, Neha Pandit, Shruti Mundada, Vrushali G and Deepshikha Singh also progressed to the next round.

Sixth seed Aryamann defeated Madhya Pradesh's Priyanshu Rajawat 21-15, 21-10 while fifth seed Rahul Yadav from Telangana registered a 21-12, 21-11 win over Jaswanth D.

In the women's singles, 14th seed Malvika Bansod stunned seventh-seed Shikha Gautam 21-11, 21-16, while fourth seed Vaidehi Choudhari got rid of Kerala's Aadya Variyath 21-17, 21-13 in another match.

Maharashtra's Vaishnavi prevailed 21-19, 21-9 over 10th seeded Reshma Karthik, while state mate 15th seeded Neha claimed a 21-18, 20-22, 21-16 upset win over the third seed Bhavya Rishi.

In doubles, Manu Attri and Maneesha K, seeded seventh, beat mixed doubles top seeds Utkarsh Arora and Karishma Wadkar 21-19, 21-18 to reach the quarterfinals and they were joined Shlok Ramchandran and Mithula UK, who beat Sanjai Srivatsa D and Kavipriya S 21-17, 21-13.

Veteran men's doubles team of V Diju and Rupesh Kumar also dispatched Prince Chaturvedi and Sangram Chutia 21-15, 21-11 in just 20 minutes en route to the pre-quarter-finals.

The top shuttlers, led by Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu, will begin their challenge from February 14.

The top eight seeds in singles have been directly placed in the pre-quarter-finals while the top four seeds in doubles will start from the quarter-finals.