Maharashtra's Kaushal Dharmamer, the top seed, staved off a spirited challenge from Ribya Jokom of Arunachal Pradesh on way to a 21-19, 21-17 win in a boys under-19 singles first round match of the 3rd Gautam Thakkar Memorial All India Junior Badminton Tournament today.
Second seed Talar Laa, also from Arunachal Pradesh, too marched into the second round with a convincing 21-16, 21-14 victory against Kartikey Gulshan Kumar in another first round match played at the Bombay Gymkhana courts here.
In the girls under-19 competition, the top two seeds - Reshma Karthik (Air India) and Reevati Devasthale (Maharashtra) - won their first round ties in contrasting fashion.
Reshma encountered a strong fight from Lalita Dahiya of Haryana before pulling through in three games at 21-19, 20-22, 21-11, while Revati had things very much under control as she cruised to a fluent 21-17 21-13 win over Anshu Sharma of Madhya to enter the second round.
Tanishq M of Andhra Pradesh joined Reshma and Reevati in the second round. The Andhra girl worked hard to put it across Maharashtra's Mugdha Agrey in three games at 21-9, 17-21, 21-13.
Unseeded Rahul Bhardhvaj of Karnataka scored an upset win over seventh seed Bodhit Joshi of Uttarakhand in a boys under-17 singles match. The Karnatak lad prevailed at 21-19, 21-12.
