Date:05/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/05/stories/2007060503142000.htm

Sport - Badminton

Pratik beats Arun

Principal Correspondent

KOCHI: With a brilliant display that proved that tall boys could be fast and flexible too, Gujarat's Pratik Patel jolted the under-19 top seed Arun Nandaluri in a three-game thriller and entered the quarterfinals of the seventh Indian Oil Servo all-India junior ranking badminton tournament at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium here on Monday. Blessed with a good reach, Pratik, the sub-junior national champion last year, covered the court well.

The results: Under-19 boys pre-quarterfinals: Pratik Patel (Guj) bt Arun Nandaluri (AI) 23-25, 21-16, 21-16; Oscar Bansal (Chg) bt Mayank Sole (Mah) 21-17, 21-14; Saurabh Verma (MP) bt B. Sai Praneeth (A) 21-15, 21-12; Tarun Kona (AP) bt Nihar Tilekar (Mah) 21-19, 14-21, 21-11; Abhimanyu Singh (MP) bt Anurag Sharma (UP) 21-19, 21-13; Gurusai Dutt (AP) bt Ravi Singhla (Har) 21-8, 21-8; Aditya R. Prakash (Ktk) bt Vikrant Kumar (AP) 23-21, 21-9; Aditya Elango (AI) bt Anilkumar Raju (AP) 21-12, 21-10.

Under-16 boys (pre-quarterfinals): B. Sai Praneeth (AP) bt Deepak Bisht (Utr) 19-21, 21-8, 21-10; Akshith Mahajan (Har) bt Dhiraj Kumar (Mah) 21-8, 21-5; H.S. Prannoy (Ker) bt Abhishek Phukan (Asm) 21-13, 21-12; N.V.S.Vijetha (AP) bt Ajay Patil (Ktk) 21-19, 19-21, 21-19; Nikhilesh Sharma (Asm) bt Pradul Joshi (MP) 22-20, 21-13; Rajkumar (Pjb) bt Sarang Lakhani (Mah) 21-15, 21-13; Sameer Verma (UP) bt Vishal Dev Reddy (AP) 16-21, 21-19, 23-21; Hirak Jyothi (Asm) bt Bisal Das (Mah) 21-18, 21-10.

Under-13 boys (pre-quarterfinals): Rohit Yadav (AP) bt Gangadhar Rao (AP) 21-13, 21-11; B.Sriram (AP) bt Sudhanshu Medsikar (Mah) 21-12, 21-11; Arun George (Ker) bt Sai Tanuj (AP) 21-18, 21-17.

Under-19 girls (pre-quarterfinals): O.Aditi (AP) bt Megha Merin Ninan (Ker) 21-5, 17-21, 21-18; Kadambari (Mah) bt Seshadri Sanyal (WB) 16-21, 21-16, 21-13; Vijeta Bhargava (MP) bt Arshita Malgaokar (Mah) 16-21, 27-25, 23-21; Sikki Reddy (AP) bt Pallavi Agarwal (Har) 21-10, 21-7; P. Lavanya (AP) bt Pradnya (Mah) 21-23, 21-18, 21-15; Ankita Asok (Ktm) bt Saloni Jain (UP) 21-19, 21-5; Varad Dixit (Mah) bt Parvathy Suresh (Ker) 21-11, 19-21, 24-22; S. Anuradha (Mah) bt Jyoti Rawat 21-3, 21-13.

Under-16 girls (pre-quarterfinals): Sheetal Kargeti (UP) bt Anjali Maria (Kar) 212-11, 21-13; P.V.Sindhu (AP) bt Arati Sarah Sunil (Ker) 21-18, 21-10.

Under-10 girls (semifinals): Sreyanshi Pardesh (MP) bt Ashmitha Chaliha (Asm) 21-19, 21-15; Veldruti Harika (AP) bt Mayuri Phukan (Asm) 21-16, 21-16. Quarterfinals: Sreyanshi (MP) bt Shreya Bose (Ker) 21-7, 21-5; Ashmita bt K.Divyarsha (AP) 21-11, 21-12; Mayuri bt Yogita (TN) 21-5, 21-5; Veldruti bt Aradhana (Mah) 21-9, 15-8 (retired).