Top seed Aditya Joshi knocked out

Shikha Gautam.

Air India’s unseeded 16-year-old Kartikey Gulshan Kumar shocked the men’s top seed Aditya Joshi of MP 16-21, 21-13, 23-21 and entered the quarterfinals of the Manorama Indian Open National-ranking senior badminton tournament here on Friday.

Meanwhile, Shikha Gautam had just about an hour’s break after her doubles match when she took on National champion P.C. Thulasi in the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals.

But she was prepared to slog it out in the battle between the country’s top junior and senior players.

Shikha jolts Thulasi

The unseeded Shikha pulled off the tournament’s biggest upset, jolting the top-seeded Thulasi 21-10, 9-21, 21-11.

There was also a major upset in the men’s doubles with Kerala’s K. Dilshad and N.G. Balasubrahmanniyan packing off the tournament’s highest seeds, M. Anil Kumar Raju (Rly) and Venket Gaurav Prasad (Cg) 14-21, 22-20, 21-18.

The results:

Men: Pre-quarterfinal: Kartikey Gulshan Kumar (AI) bt Aditya Joshi (MP) 16-21, 21-13, 23-21.

Second round: Aditya Joshi bt A. Arun Kumar (TN) 17-21, 21-6, 21-8; Kartikey G. Kumar (AI) bt Ansal Yadav (UP) 9-21, 21-19, 21-15; Abhishek Yeligar (Kar) bt Siddharath Thakur (Mah) 21-16, 21-10.

Bodhit Joshi (Utk) bt C. Rohit Yadav (AAI) 19-21, 23-21, 21-12; Neeraj Vashisth (Rly) bt K. Ajay Kumar (Tel) 21-18, 21-16; R. Aneeth Kumar (AP) bt M.G. Hemanth (Kar) 21-17, 12-21, 21-15; Chirag Sen (AI) bt Balraj Kajla (Kar) 18-21, 21-10, 21-14; Shubham Prajapati (MP) bt Siddharth Pratap Singh (Cg) 21-18, 21-19; Oscar Bansal (Chd) bt Mayank Ahuja (Har) 18-21, 21-14, 21-13; Lakshya Sen (Utk) bt D. Jaswanth (AP) 21-10, 21-9; Arun Kumar (Har) bt R. Sunny (Ker) 22-20, 21-17.

Daniel S. Farid (Kar) bt Rajesh Verma (Raj) 21-17, 21-10; Kiran George (Ker) bt Ketan Chahal (Har) 18-21, 21-18, 21-9; Pratul Joshi (MP) bt M. Kiran Kumar (Tel) 21-17. 21-17; N.V.S. Vijetha (Tel) bt D. Gopalakrishna Reddy (Tel) 19-21, 21-16, 21-18; Kevin Arokia Walter (TN) bt Ameya Oak (Mah) 21-15, 21-17.

Women: Pre-quarterfinals: Shikha Gautam (Kar) bt P.C. Thulasi (Pet) 21-10, 9-21, 21-11; Sri Krishna Priya (Tel) bt Riya Pillai, (Mah) 18-21, 21-14, 21-10; Reshma Karthik (AI) bt Anuriya Das (WB) 21-13, 21-15; G. Vrushali (Tel) bt Vaishnavi Bhale (Mah) 21-12, 21-12.

Sai Uttejitha Rao Ch. (AP) bt Mugdha Agrey (Mah) 21-17, 21-13; Rituparna Das (Tel) bt Rasika Raje (Mah) 21-16, 21-11; Vaidehi Choudhari (Mah) bt Shenan Christian (Guj) 18-21, 21-18, 21-15.