Madhya Pradesh’s Abhimanyu Singh caused the biggest upset of the day, packing off third seed Mohit Kamat from the National badminton championship here on Monday.
Abhimanyu won 19-21, 21-13, 21-9 to set up a quarterfinal clash with a struggling Ajay Jayaram.
Shreyansh Jaiswal advanced to the last eight stage with a victory over Love Kumar, the Punjab boy who surprised 15th seed Oscar Bansal 21-16, 21-19 in the third round.
Arvind Bhat, who saved a match point before beating another former National champion Chetan Anand in the third round, eventually surrendered to sixth-seeded K. Nandagopal in straight games after failing to cash in on a game point in the opener.
Bhat was extremely fortunate against Chetan, who served into the net three times towards the closing stages of the contest, including when holding a match-point at 20-19.
Wildcards P. Kashyap and Jayaram stayed on course for a title clash after posting contrasting victories.
Kashyap dismissed R.N. Suraj in straight games and will face second-seeded B. Sai Praneeth in the quarterfinals.
Earlier, Suraj made the grade when ninth seed Anand Pawar withdrew from their third round encounter due to injury.
Jayaram survived the loss of the opening game to 17-year-old Pratul Joshi to book a place in the quarterfinals.
Among the ladies, top seed Neha Pandit was stretched to three games by 16th seed Arathi Sara.
Second seed Sayali Gokhale and third-seeded P.V. Sindhu, the favourite, made it without trouble.
Sindhu’s rival Saili Rane withdrew after suffering an injury in the second game.
All other results were on expected lines.
The results (pre-quarterfinals):
Men: Shreyansh Jaiswal bt Love Kumar 21-11, 21-17; K. Nandagopal bt Arvind Bhat 23-21, 21-19; Abhimanyu Singh bt Mohit Kamat 19-21, 21-13, 21-19.
Ajay Jayaram bt Pratul Joshi 21-23, 21-14, 21-15; K. Srikanth bt Anup Sridhar 21-15, 21-15; R.M.V. Guru Sai Dutt bt Subhankar Dey 21-12, 21-4, P. Kashyap bt R.N. Suraj 21-9, 21-11; B. Sai Praneeth bt V. Velavan 21-17, 21-13.
Women: Neha Pandit bt Arathi Sara 16-21, 21-14, 21-14; Arundhati bt Sheshadari Sanyal 21-11, 21-8; P.V. Sindhu bt Saili Rane 21-7, 6-3, retd.; Anita Ohlan bt Mohita Sahdev 21-9, 21-15.
Tanvi Lad bt Rasika Raje 21-17, 21-10; Trupti Murgunde bt Sneha Santhilal 21-13, 21-8; P.C. Thulasi bt Kanthi Visalakshi 21-13, 21-13; Sayali Gokhale bt Riya Pillai 21-8, 21-12.
