Visakhapatnam, August 20: Nithyashree Mani of Bank of Baroda Sports Control Board (BBSCB) caused a major upset when she beat fourth seed Ayhika Mukherjee of RBI in the Round 32 singles of the ongoing AAI-50th Inter-state National championships at the Swarna Bharathi Stadium today.

Ayhika could not convert her match points in time and let the Chennai girl get too closer for her comfort. From the comfort zone, the RBI women made a few silly errors that allowed Nithyashree to deuce. After that, Nithyashree held on and prematurely halted the progress of Ayhika. 

It was the only upset as other women's seeds matched into the round pre-quarterfinals. Syndrela Das of West Bengal gave some torrid moments to Manika Batra in the second game, but the PSPB won and warded off the threat to move ahead. Second-seed Sreeja Akula dropped a game to Oishiki Joardar of West Bengal before gathering herself to beat her, as did Archana Kamath, the fifth seed, against Taneesha Kotecha of AAI.

Thirteenth seed Payas Jain bit the dust and went down to Jayabrata Bhattacharjee of West Bengal in the round of 64. The Delhi paddler lost, after some fighting, 11-9, 14-12, 5-11, 12-14, 8-11. Payas took a comfortable lead, but Jayabratha struck back strongly to outsmart Payas. 

Other than the lone minor upset, all other seeded players advanced to the next round. But second-seeded Sharath Kamal dropped two games in his second-round match against Arjun Ghosh of the Railways. Arjun took the lead, but Sharath went 2-1 up before dropping another game. Soon after, he completed the task with an easy win in the next. In the thrid rouund, Sharath toyed with Sarth Mishra of UP and won 3-0.

Ninth-seeded Subh Goel of Delhi struggled before outgunning Sarthak Seth of IA&AD in his second-round match 3-2.

Important Results:

Men’s Singles (R-32): Harmeet Desai (PSPB) bt Shankadip Das (WB) 11-8, 11-7, 11-7, Anirban Ghosh (RSPB) bt Dhariya Parmar (IA&ID) 6-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-3, Subh Goel (Del) bt Sarthak Seth (IA&AD) 11-7, 11-13, 11-5, 7-11, 11-8, SFR Snehit (AAI) bt Preyesh Raj (TN) 6-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6, Manush Shah (RBI) bt Chitrax Bhatt (FCI) 11-7, 11-4, 11-6, Anthony Amalraj (PSPB) bt Surajit Das (ESIC) 11-4, 11-6, 11-6, Manav Thakkar (PSPB) bt H. Jeho (BBSCB) 12-10, 11-3, 11-13, 11-9, G. Sathiyan (PSPB) bt Mohammed Ali (Telg) 6-11, 14-12, 11-8, 11-9, Jeet Chandra (AAI) bt Divyansh Srivastava (UP) 5-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-6, Sudhanshu Grover (Del) bt Harkunwar Singh (Pun) 11-5, 11-5, 15-13, Sanil Shetty (PSPB) bt Riyan Dutta (Guj) 11-6, 11-5, 11-5, Ronit Bhanja (RSPB) bt Abhinay Vijay (TN) 11-5, 11-8, 11-4, Sourav Saha (PSPB) bt Shankab Baruah (IA&AD) 11-7, 11-7, 16-18, 11-5, Yashansh Malik (Del) bt Abhinav Belwal (Chd) 6-11, 11-3, 10-12, 11-7, 11-4, Sharath Kamal (PSPB) bt Sarth Mishra (UP) 11-6, 11-6, 11-6.

Women’s Singles: (R-32): Manika Batra (PSPB) bt Syndrela Das (WB) 11-9, 16-14, 11-8, Moumita Dutta (RSPB) bt Vanshika Deshna (Kar) 11-9, 11-8, 11-4, Archana Kamath (PSPB) bt Taneesha Kotecha (AAI) 13-11, 6-11, 12-10, 11-8, Nithyashree Mani (BBSCB) bt Ayhika Mukherjee (RBI) 11-5, 11-4, 6-11, 12-10, Diya Chitale (RBI) bt Selenadeepthi Selvakumar (CRSB) 7-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-8, Reeth Rishya (PSPB) bt Vanshika Mudgal (Del) 12-10, 11-6, 6-11, 11-5, Sutirtha Mukherjee (RSPB) bt Munmun Kundu (WB) 11-8, 11-9, 11-4, Sreeja Akula bt Oishiki Joardar (AAI) 7-11, 11-2, 11-6, 11-6.