Gopichand, Popat storm into semis

Top seeds Pulella Gopichand and Aparna Popat continued their march in the Senior National badminton championships in Jaipur on Monday with straight game victories over their respective opponents to reach the semi-finals of the men's and women's singles respectively.

Fifth seed Chetan Anand caused a major upset, when he shocked second seed Sachin Ratti of Railways in the quarter- finals. Anand prevailed 15-13, 10-15, 15-13 in a gruelling encounter to book a berth in the last four.

The quarter-finals saw total domination by Petroleum Sports Control Board as it bagged all four places in the men's semi-finals and two in the women's.

World No. 6 Gopichand outplayed Abhishek Bakshi of Air India 15-6, 15-2 in characteristic style while Popat avenged her defeat in the team events final by knocking out Jwala Gutta of Andhra Pradesh 11-2, 11-5.

In other men's quarter-final matches, fourth seed Abhin Shyam Gupta overcame Arup Baidya (WB) 17-14, 15-0, while third seed Siddharth Jain beat unseeded Arvind Bhatt (Ktk) 12-15, 15-5, 15-11.

In the women's section, former national champion Manjusha Kanwar (PSCB) defeated Trupti Murugunde (AI) 11-9, 11-4 while Divya Ramesh (BAI) beat P V V Laxmi (PSCB) 11-9, 11-0. B R Meenakshi of Karnataka defeated Parul Priyadarshini of Air India 11-5, 11-6 to move into the semi-finals.

Anuj Gupta upset by Arup Baidya in last 16

Earlier in the morning, gunning for his fourth straight national crown Gopichand and Popat stormed into the quarter-finals. However, eighth seeded Anuj Gupta was shown the door by 11th seed Arup Baidya.

Gopichand (PSCB) outplayed Shrikant Bakshi (Rlys) 15-1, 15-2 in 24 minutes while Popat demolished D Sweta (AI) 11-3, 11-1.

Second seed Sachin Ratti of Railways had an easy win over Rutuparna Kulkarni (Mah) 15-6, 15-2 and third seed Siddharth Jain (PSCB) got the better of Ravinder Singh (UP) 15-8, 15-12, in men's singles matches.

In other action, fourth seed and former national runner- up Abhinn Shyam Gupta (PSCB) beat B G Kiran (BSB) 15-2, 15-7; seventh seed Abhishek Bakshi (AI) drubbed Thomas Kurian (Ker) 15-5, 15-11; fifth seed Chetan Anand (PSCB) defeated Vijay Lancy (PSCB) 15-6, 15-3; and unseeded Arvinda Bhatt (Ktk) beat Anup Sridhar (AI) 15-8, 15-5 to make it to the quarters.

While Popat beat Sweta, P V V Laxmi (PSCB) edged past Nupura Bhide (Mah) 13-12, 11-5 and Divya Ramesh (BAI) defeated Leena Pednekar (LIC) 11-6, 11-5.

Young sensation Jwala Gutta of Andhra Pradesh, who shocked Popat in the team championship last week, continued with her fine form, beating Aditi Mutatkar (Mah) 11-3, 11-0.

In other women's singles matches, Parul Priyadarshani (AI) beat Sampada Shetye (Rly) 11-2, 11-1; B R Meenakshi (Ktk) defeated Neelima Chowdhary (PSCB) 11-7, 11-3; Trupti Murgunde (AI) beat Shruti Kurien (AP) 11-9, 11-3; and former national champion Manjusha Kanwar (PSCB) outclassed Tanuja Begam (Rly) 11-0, 11-1 to reach the quarter-finals.

Gopichand remained invincible and he was through to the quarter-finals in under half-an-hour. Other seeds also had comfortable victories as all the pre-quarterfinal matches were decided in straight games.

The defending champion will now take on seventh seeded Abhishek Bakshi for a place in the semifinals.

Second seeded Sachin Ratti faces Chetan Anand, the fifth seeded; Siddharth Jain clashes with unseeded Arvinda Bhatt and fourth seed Abhinn Shyam Gupta meets 11th seed Arup Baidya in other last eight encounters.

While the first three rounds witnessed the fall of six men's seeded players -- sixth seed Sanave Thomas (Ker), seventh seed D Guruprasad (BSB), 12th seed Madhur Kalia (Rly), 14th seed Abhijit Nmpally (BSB), 15th seed J B S Vidhyadhar (Rly), 16th seed J T Anthony (Ker) -- eight seeded Anuj Gupta was the only rated player to make the exit on Monday.

Gupta was stunned by Baidya, who despite pulling his thigh muscle won 17-14, 15-9 in 55 minutes. Baidya was down 13-14 in first game but then reeled off four points in a row to win the first game 17-14.

After being 0-4 down in second, Baidya levelled at 7-7 and won the second 15-9 to make the last eight grade.

In women's section too, seeded players had it easy.

Top seed Aparna Popat, now a little alert after her shock defeat in the team event to Jwala Gutta, drubbed Sweta to set up a quarter-final tie with Gutta again.

Third seed P V V Laxmi faces fifth seed Divya Ramesh, sixth seeded Parul Priyadarshini meets fourth seed B R Meenakshi and seventh seed Trupti Murugunde takes on third seed Manjusha Kanwar in other quarterfinal matches.