Young and emerging badminton player Shriyanshi Valishetty displayed a remarkable performance, securing a come-from-behind victory against defending champion Anupama Upadhyaya at the 85th Senior National Badminton Championships 2023 in Guwahati. Meanwhile, Lakshya Sen beat Abhishek Saini to reach the quarterfinals.
Shriyanshi Valishetty orchestrated a remarkable comeback against defending champion Anupama Upadhyaya in the women’s singles round-of-16 match, securing a thrilling 18-21, 21-13, 21-17 victory. Despite losing the first game, the 16-year-old shuttler from Telangana demonstrated her prowess on the court.
In other women’s singles matches, top seed Aakarshi Kashyap and Assam’s Ashmita Chaliha comfortably progressed to the quarter-finals. Aakarshi dominated Sakshi Phogat of Rajasthan with a score of 21-9, 21-13, while Ashmita convincingly triumphed over Surya Charishma Tamiri of Andhra Pradesh with a scoreline of 21-15, 21-10. Aakarshi is poised to face Tanvi Sharma, the silver medallist at the Badminton Asia U-17 & U-15 Junior Championships 2023, while Ashmita is set to go up against Meghana Reddy M in the Last-8 stage.
Senior National Badminton Championships: Dhruv-Tanisha breeze into next round
In men’s singles pre-quarters, defending champion Mithun Manjunath secured a hard-fought 21-17, 22-20 win over Bhargav Somasundara, and BWF World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen advanced with a convincing 21-16, 21-11 victory against Abhishek Saini. They will confront Kiran George and Bharat Raghav, respectively, in the quarter-finals.
The men’s doubles category witnessed top seeds Krishna Prasad-Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala and the in-form pair of Hariharan Amsakarunan-Ruban Kumar R emerging victorious on Day 3. Krishna and Vishnuvardhan defeated Ayush Makhija-Sujey Tamboli 21-16, 21-18, while Hariharan and Ruban overcame Viplav and Viraj Kuwale with a score of 21-14, 21-14.
However, surprises unfolded in the women’s doubles and mixed doubles categories, with the top-seeded pairs facing upsets. Ayush Agarwal-Shruti Mishra ousted reigning mixed doubles champions T Hemanagendra Babu-Kanika Kanwal with a score of 21-13, 16-21, 21-15. In the women’s doubles, Aparna Balan-Rituparna Das defeated the duo of Arulbala R-Varshini VS, who fell short with a score of 19-21, 21-17, 21-12 in the pre-quarterfinals.
