Senior National Badminton: Charishma, Mundada send top two seeds packing to reach semis

Vijayawada: Local favourite Surya Charishma Tamiri and the experienced Shruti Mundada upset the top two seeds in straight games to storm into the semifinals of the Senior National Badminton Championships in Vijayawada on Friday.

Surya Charishma proved too strong for top seed Unnati Hooda, winning their quarterfinals 21-12, 21-15 in just 36 minutes, while Shruti defeated second seed and former national champion Anupama Upadhyaya 22-20, 21-12 in 39 minutes.

In the semifinals, Surya Charishma will face Rakshita Sree after the 18-year-old came from a game down to beat world junior championships silver medallist Tanvi Sharma 16-21, 21-14, 21-18.

In the men’s singles category, top seed Kiran George had to work hard to overcome the challenge of 11th seed Rounak Chauhan 21-18, 21-18 in 41 minutes.

He will now face 2024 Odisha Open champion Rithvik Sanjeevi S, who defeated K Sathish Kumar 21-13, 22-20 in the other quarterfinal.

The other semifinal will see second seed M Tharun take on unseeded Bharat Raghav. In the quarter finals, Tharun defeated Manraj Singh 21-13, 22-20, while Bharat got the better of Ginpaul Sonna 21-17, 21-13.

The top seeds in women’s doubles, Rutuparna and Swetaparna Panda, were also knocked out in the pre-quarterfinal stage by Riduvarshini Ramasamy and Sania Sikkandar, who won 21-16, 21-19. IANS

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