Sameer Verma, younger brother of the top-seeded Saurabh Verma, came through the qualifying rounds before humbling third seed Mohit Kamat of Railways in the pre-quarterfinal round of the Bank of India all-India senior ranking badminton tournament at the KBA courts here on Sunday. Sameer Verma won 19-21, 21-18, 21-15 in about 35 minutes.
The short and frail Sameer was quick on his feet and covered the court well enough to tire his seeded opponent. Mohit, just back from his inter-Railways tournament in Guwahati, despite recovering marginally in the third set from being 9-14 down to 14-16 committed too many negatives to throw away the match.
On the adjacent court, Prakash Jolly — the India junior No 1 — toyed and teased Adarsh Kumar, a former volleyball player, into submission and won 21-16, 21-11 to also advance into the round of eight.
The top seed in the women's section, Trupti Murgunde (Petroleum) pulled out of the championship citing an ankle injury. This robbed the event of whatever little glamour was left, what with most of the senior stars opting out due to various reasons.
In the round of 32, which began early on Sunday morning, fourth seed Sagar Chopda (Maharashtra) retired trailing Kiran Kumar (Railways) 16-19 in the first game while Nikhil Kanetkar (Petroleum) was waylaid by AAI's Saurav Kapoor 22-20, 21-18.
The results: Pre-quarterfinals: Men: Singles: Saurabh Verma (MP) bt Praful Joshi (AI) 21-14, 21-12; Prannoy (Ker) bt Vijay Kumar Reddy (AP) 21-15, 21-9; Adithya Prakash (Kar) bt Kiran Kumar (Rlys) 21-18, 21-13; Sai Praneeth (AAI) bt Vijeth (AP) 21-12, 20-22, 21-8; Eashan Naqvi (Mah) bt Rameswar Mahapatra (Kar) 21-8, 21-13; Sameer Verma (AI) bt Mohit Kamat (Rlys) 19-21, 21-18, 21-15; Prakash Jolly (Kar) bt Adarsh Kumar (Kar) 21-16, 21-11; Nanda Gopal (AP) bt Saurav Kapoor (AAI) 21-13, 21-17.
Doubles: Akshay Dewalkar / Arun Vishnu bt Joy T. Antony / Thomas Kurian 21-12, 21-16; Pratik Patel / Aditya Prakash bt Guru Prasad / Abhijeet Naimpally 21-15, 21-19; Sunjith / Ram C. Vijay bt Venkat Gaurav / Manish Gupta 21-15, 21-11; Deepak Khatri / Akshit Mahajan bt Vineeth Manuel / Krishna 21-19, 21-11; Mohit Kamat / Venkatesh Prasad bt M. Arjun Kumar Reddy / Nanda Gopal 19-21, 21-18, 24-22; Bennet Antony / Alwin Francis bt Sanjeeth / Jeevan 21-17, 21-9; T. Hemanagendra Babu / Srikanth bt Anil Kumar Raju / Dinesh 21-15, 21-17; Sai Praneeth / Pranav Chopra bt Hersen / Suraj 21-18, 21-18.
Women:Singles: Sayali Gokhale (AI) bt Uttara Prakash (Kar) 21-12, 21-10; Poorvisha (Kar) bt Manali Sinha (Asm) 21-13, 21-16; P.C. Thulasi (Ker) bt Saloni Yadav (MP) 21-12, 21-10; Sindhu (AAI) bt Rama Prabha (Kar) 21-6, 21-5; Jacqueline Rose Kunnath (Kar) bt Dhanya Nair (Rlys) 21-13, 19-21, 21-16; Daya Elsa Jacob (Ker) bt Bibari Basumatary (Asm) 21-9, 18-21, 21-16; Neha Pandit (AAI) bt Sampada Sahasrabudhe (Mah) 21-19, 21-17; Anita Ohlani (Rlys) bt Varsha Belawadi (Kar) 21-14, 21-12.
Doubles: Aparna Balan / Prajakta Sawant bt Sumitra Pujari / Manali Sinha 21-13, 21-3; B. Deepthi / Priyadarshini w/o J.V. Kristi Das / Dimpal Hazarika; Varsha Belawadi / Nischitha bt Sneha Santhilal / Arathi Sara Sunil 21-19, 11-21, 21-15; Anjali Kalita / Meenakshi Nair bt Sarada Govardhini / Anita Ohlani 21-19, 19-21, 21-14; P.C. Thulasi / Sindhu bt Lilofer Lingdoh / Basansrieh 21-2, 21-3; Shruti Kurien / Nitya Sosale w/o Sanyogita Ghorpade / Sampada Sahasrabuddhe; Vaishali Baria / Megha Merin Ninan bt Bibari Basumatary / Abantika Deka 21-12, 21-12; Pradnya Gadre / Jyotshna bt Garima Yadav / Saloni Yadav 21-6, 21-9.
