Hooda, Tanvi, Mannepalli, Kiran among Indians entering pre-quarterfinals in Odisha Masters

Cuttack, Dec 10 (PTI) Top seeds Unnati Hooda and Tharun Mannepalli as well as other leading Indian shuttlers progressed comfortably to the pre-quarterfinals across singles categories of the Odisha Masters Super 100, here on Wednesday.

In women’s singles, Unnati began her campaign in commanding fashion, defeating UAE’s P. Bharath 21-12, 21-18.

Sixth seed Anmol Kharb survived a stern test from Thailand’s Y. Ketklieng, prevailing 21-17, 19-21, 23-21, while third seed Tanvi Sharma outlasted Japan’s Aika Iwaki 21-8, 17-21, 21-18.

Fifth seed Anupama Upadhyaya barely broke a sweat as she brushed aside Indonesia’s Dalila Aghnia Puteri 21-14, 21-13 to enter the pre-quarterfinals.

The men’s singles draw also saw emphatic performances from the seeded players.

Mannepalli dismantled Manav Choudhary 21-5, 21-8, while second seed Kiran George eased past Rajesh Srikar 21-12, 21-13. Fourth seed Priyanshu Rajawat was stretched by Saneeth Dayanand, but he held his nerves for a 21-19, 14-21, 21-13 win.

Seventh seed S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian overcame Darshan Pujari 21-19, 23-21, and eighth seed Rithvik Sanjeevi Satish Kumar advanced with a straight-game victory over Numair Shaik.

Govind Krishna, Orijit Chaliha, Siddhanth Gupta, Rounak Chouhan, Varun Kapur, Arya Bhivpathaki also won their respective matches whereas AR Rohan Kumar eliminated sixth seed Manraj Singh 21-6, 21-12.

In other women’s singles matches, Aditi Bhatt edged out Hong Kong’s Liang KW 21-19, 24-22, while Aditi Rao got the better of Indonesia’s Catharine Handoyo 23-21, 21-9.

Isharani Baruah produced one of the standout results of the day by thrashing Thailand’s second seed Pornpicha Choeikeewong 21-15, 21-8.

Aakarshi Kashyap registered a convincing 21-9, 21-10 win over Chinese Taipei’s Yi En Hsieh, eighth seed Shriyanshi Valishetty defeated Aalisha Naik 21-17, 21-12, while T Hemanth and Tasnim Mir progressed after hard-fought three-game victories. PTI ATK DDV