Manesar (Haryana), February 4: A. Sharath Kamal entered the pre-quarterfinals of the men singles event in the ongoing 78th 11Even Sports Senior Nationals was released at the Manesar Sports Club here today.

The Indian Oil player, who is top-seeded here, went through the motions in the first two rounds, beating his opponents rather easily. At least in the first round against Raja Kundu of North Bengal he played four games but in the second he was leading by two games when his opponent Nitin Thiruvengadam of Karnataka conceded the match.

Sharath will next run into AAI’s Sarthak Gandhi who accounted for West Bengal’s Arjun Ghosh 4-3 in a tough second round battle.

Except for the eighth-seeded Manav Thakkar of PSPB, all the other seeded players moved into the pre-quarterfinals. Haryana’s Sourav Saha, who defeated Manav 4-2, was challenged well as the PSPB youngster dug himself out of the precarious position he was in at 1-2. Manav won the fourth game 15-13 after losing a couple of game points to put the pressure back on Sourav. But the Haryana paddler did well to stop Manav well short in the next two games to avoid a possible embarrassment.

There were a few other matches that went down to the wire with AAI’s Sarthak Gandhi struggling against West Bengal’s Arjun Ghosh who led 2-0 and then went 3-1 up. Sarthak played superbly to inch closer towards victory and a lot of labour involved when he snatched victory from an imminent loss.

Another PSPB paddler, Subhajit Saha, despite leading 3-1, went some harrowing moments when West Bengal’s Anirban Nandi restored parity before bowing out. But it was Gujarat’s Jignesh Jaiswal, the oldest male player at 38, beat Delhi’s Utkarsh Gupta 11-9, 11-8, 3-11, 7-11, 10-12, 11-3, 11-8 in a match where fortunes fluctuated from one extreme to another.

Jignesh won the first two and last two to make a match of it and will take on fifth seed Harmeet Desai of PSPB in the pre-quarterfinals. Desai beat Haryana’s Mohit Verma 4-0. West Bengal’s Ronit Bhanja overcame stiff resistance from Tamil Nadu’s Anand Raj Rajan, posting a 4-2 triumph. It was a tough win for Raj Mondal of RBI against Maharashtra’s Ravindra Kotiyan while Gujarat’s Devesh Karia huffed and puffed his way into the pre-quarters with a 15-13, 10-12, 12-14, 11-1, 8-11, 12-10 victory over PSPB’s Birdie Boro.

In women’s second round matches, top-seed Madhurika Patkar was fully stretched when Tamil Nadu’s Selenadeepthi Selvakumar made a valiant effort before losing 12-10, 9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 6-11, 6-11, 9-11. So was the case with West Bengal’s Krittwika Sinha Roy who struggled past state mate Sagarika Mukherjee 4-3.

Among other seeded players, third seed Mouma Das was upset when qualifier from West Bengal, Shreya Ghosh, beat the Rio Olympian 15-13, 8-11, 11-7, 11-8, 7-11, 11-9 for her early exit in the second round. Rajasthan’s Priyanka Pareek almost upset Manika Batra’s plan but luckly for the fifth seed she survived the second round 4-2 to enter the pre-quarterfinals.

With the pre-quarterfinals slated for later tonight, we are certainly in for a few more surprises in the second round of women matches.

Results:

Men: Round 2: A Sharath Kamal bt Nitin Thiruvengadum 2-0 (conceded), Sarthak Gandhi bt Arjun Ghosh 4-3, Subhajit Saha bt Anirban Nandi 4-3, Sourav Saha bt Manav Thakkar 4-2, Harmeet Desai bt Mohit Verma 4-0, Jignesh Jaiswal bt Utkarsh Gupta 4-3, Ronit Bhanja bt Anand Raj 4-2, Sanil Shetty bt Shreyal Telang 4-1, A. Amalraj bt Sivananda Seshadri 4-0, G. Sathiyan bt Subash Mani 4-0, Sougata Sarkar bt Soumyadeep Roy 4-2, Abhihishek Yadav bt Anirban Ghosh 4-3, Soumyajit Ghosh bt Abshek  Ravichandran 4-0, Jubin Kumar bt Vivek Bhargava 4-1, Devesh Karia bt Birdie Boro 4-3, Raj Mondal bt Ravindra Kotiyan 4-3.