Twenty-year-old Aditya Prakash of Karnataka defeated two higher-ranked opponents en route to the badminton semifinals of the 34th Jharkhand National Games here on Saturday.
Aditya put it across H.S. Prannoy (Kerala) in the pre-quarterfinals before defeating Sai Praneeth of Andhra Pradesh in the last-eight clash.
Aditya Prakash will next take on the top-seeded K. Nanda Gopal of Andhra Pradesh.
Sai Dutt in semifinals
Guru Sai Dutt of Andhra Pradesh beat Saurabh Varma, the second seed, from Madhya Pradesh 21-15, 19-21, 21-11.
In an absorbing women's quarterfinal, Kerala's P.C. Thulasi overcame a fighting P.V. Sindhu of Andhra Pradesh 11-21, 21-18, 21-19.
The results:
Badminton (quarterfinals): Men: K. Nandagopal (AP) bt Eshan Naqvi (Mah) 21-14, 21-13; B. Sumeeth Reddy (AP) bt Mohit Kamat (Kar) 16-21, 21-13, 21-18.
Guru Sai Dutt (AP) bt Saurabh Varma (MP) 21-15, 19-21, 21-11; Aditya Prakash (Kar) bt B. Sai Praneeth (AP) 21-17, 23-21.
Women: Sayali Gokhale (Mah) bt Bibari Basumatri (Asm) 21-19, 21-9; Arundati Pantwane (Mah) bt Anita Ohlan (Har) 21-6, 21-19; P.C. Thulasi (Ker) bt P.V. Sindhu (AP) 11-21, 21-8, 21-19; Neha Pandit (Mah) bt Manali Sinha (Asm) 21-5, 21-9.
Basketball (preliminaries):
Men: Uttaranchal bt Karnataka 82-79; Punjab bt Andhra Pradesh 112-40.
Women: Tamil Nadu bt Kerala 62-50; Maharashtra bt Punjab 65-38; Chhattisgarh bt Karnataka 71-40; Kerala bt Jharkhand 83-24.
