Odisha Masters 2023: Ayush Shetty, Kiran George, Unnati Hooda through to Pre-quarters

World junior championships bronze medallist Ayush Shetty and defending champions Kiran George and Unnati Hooda entered the pre-quarterfinals but top seed Priyanshu Rajawat suffered a shock loss on the second day of the Odisha Masters super 100 badminton tournament on Wednesday.

In the men’s singles Defending Champion Kiran George, seeded 2, registered 21-12, 10-21, 21-12 win over compatriot Rithvik Satish Kumar to progress to the next round., setting up a date with Iqbal Diaz Syahputra of Indonesia in the pre-quarters.

Shetty, who beat Tharun Mannepalli in the opening round on Tuesday, was up against Muhammad Reza Al Fajri of Indonesia in Round 2. The 18-year-old faced tough competition from his opponent but held his nerves to win 19-21, 21-9, 22-20. He will now be up against another Indonesia, Tegar Sulistio, who beat Yang Yang of the Chinese Taipei 19-21, 21-16, 21-16.

However, it was not a great day for Rajawat. The top seed went down to Indonesia’s Alwi Farhan, despite putting in a tough effort, losing 11-21, 22-20, 12-21.

Fifth seed Mithun Manjunath, the current national champion and 2022 Orléans Masters runner-up, had it easy as he notched up a 21-12, 21-18 win over Dumindu Abeywickrama of Sri Lanka and will be facing fellow Indian Subhankar Dey, a winner of 2018 SaarLorLux Open super 100, in the next round. Meanwhile Chirag Sen defeated Saneeth Dayanand Shimoga 21-12, 21-9. Meiraba Maisnam, Sathish Kumar and Arya Bhivpathaki also entered the men’s singles third round.

In the women’s section, defending champion Unnati Hooda, national champion Anupama Upadhyaya, Ashmita Chaliha, Imad Farooqui Samiya, Tasnim Mir reached the prequarterfinals. While Unnati beat Uganda’s Husina Kobugabe 21-10 21-8, Anupama produced a brilliant performance to knock out second seed Korean Sung Shuo Yun, prevailing 16-21, 21-19, 21-17. Unnati will face Ashmita, who beat another player from Uganda — Fadilah Shamika Mohamed Rafi 21-14, 21-6.

In a high-intensity fixture of women’s Doubles category, the duo of Ashwini and Tanisha, who are coming here on the back of securing their second Super 100 title at the Guwahati Masters and also reaching career high 24 in BWF World Rankings defeated UAE’s Aleena Qathun and Nayonika Rajesh 21-7, 21-14., and will now be facing fellow Indians Arul Bala Radhakrishnan and Varshini Vishwanath Sri.

In another women’s doubles fixture, Palak Arora and Unnati Hooda lost 7-21, 13-21 to Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker.

In the mixed doubles, the pair of Ashwini and Rohan Kapoor defeated Ting Shih Wee Owen and Gan Jing Err (Malaysia) with a score of 21-19 and 21-15. They would now be up against Eighth-seed B Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy who prevailed 21-9, 21-15 over Farogh Sanjay Aman and Anagha Karandikar in Round 1.