Senior Nationals: Unseeded Rounak Chauhan, Adarshini Shri reach singles semifinals

Chhattisgarh's Rounak Chauhan and Tamil Nadu's Adarshini Shri NB continued their giant-killing run to reach the men's and women's singles semifinals respectively at the 86th Senior National Badminton Championships here on Sunday. Chauhan defeated 14th seed Alap Mishra, who had knocked out second seed Ayush Shetty in the morning, 21-10, 21-16 in the men's singles quarterfinals, while Adarshini got the better of Shreya Lele 23-21, 21-12.

In the semifinals, Chauhan will face former national champion Mithun Manjunath, who hammered Sankar Saraswat 21-9, 21-9 while Adarshini will meet 13th seed Devika Sihag, who got the better of Rujula Ramu 17-21, 21-19, 21-16. None of the top-eight seeds in women's singles will feature in the last-four stage after Gujarat's Tasnim Mir followed up her win over top seed Aakarshi Kashyap in the morning with yet another fine display to defeat seventh seed Isharani Baruah 21-16, 21-18.

She will now face Shriyanshi Valishetty in the semifinals. The top mixed doubles pairing of Sathish Kumar K and Adya Variyath was also knocked out at the quarterfinal stage as it went down 16-21, 21-19, 14-21 against the experienced combination of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani. Sathish Kumar, who recently won the Guwahati Masters Super 100 crown, remained on course for a singles title as he defeated Kaushal Dharmamer 21-11, 21-12 to reach the semifinals.

Earlier, the day saw major upsets in the women's singles category as all the top six seeds were knocked out in the morning session. Defending champion Anmol Kharb along with five other seeded women's singles players bowed out of the Championships after suffering defeats at the pre-quarterfinals. Anmol, who recently reached the final of the Guwahati Masters Super 100 tournament, lost 12-21 15-21 to 12th seed Shriyanshi Valishetty, while 16th seed Tasnim Mir packed-off top seed Aakarshi Kashyap 21-19, 21-17 in another match.

On the other courts, 15th seed Shreya Lele continued her impressive run as she came from a game down to beat former champion and second seed Anupama Upadhyaya 13-21, 21-18, 21-14 in a thrilling match. Devika, seeded 13th, kept her composure to beat fourth seed and last edition runners-up Tanvi Sharma 21-19, 21-18, while unseeded Rujula Ramu accounted for fifth seed Mansi Singh 21-19, 20-22, 21-13 and 14th seed Sakshi Phogat ended the campaign of sixth seed Adita Rao 21-18, 21-19. National Games gold medallist M Tharun was no match for former champion Manjunath's guile as he went down 18-21, 12-21 in another match. PTI