By IANS
New Delhi : Women’s second seed Trupti Murgunde of Petroleum Sports Control Board was knocked out by unseeded Sayali Gokhale of Air India in a major upset in the Pramod Mahajan All India Ranking Badminton tournament at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here Friday.
Trupti’s team-mate and top seed Saina Nehwal stormed into the semi-finals/ beating Railways’ Anita Ohlan 21-8, 21-11.
In the men’s quarter-finals, top seed Anup Sridhar at last found his rhythm and comfortably defeated K. Tanishak of Andhra Pradesh 21-17, 21-7. However, third seed Anand Pawar of Air-India was beaten by fifth seed Arvind Bhatt of Petroleum Sports Control Board 14-21, 19-21.
In semi-finals Sridhar will be up against team-mate and a rejuvenated Arvind Bhatt.
Ajay Jaya Ram, who Thursday upset fourth seed Chetan Anand, lost to J.B.S Vidyadhar of Andhra Pradesh in a thrilling encounter, 11-21, 21-18, 21-19.
Vidyadhar will now play statemate and second seed P. Kashyap in the semi-finals.
Promising Kashyap got the better of Railway’s Sachin Ratti 21-17, 21-11 in the last eight.
Trupti, who has been unwell ever since her has arrived in the capital, lost 11-21, 21-16, 21-16 against an energetic Sayali, who now faces another unseeded Dhanya Nair of Railways in the semi-finals Saturday.
“I have not been well since the time I landed here as I am suffering from fever and acidity problems. But all credit to Sayali who, despite losing the first game, came back strongly,” said Trupti after the match.
“I started off well but could not last long as I was feeling very weak throughout the match. To add to that, my court coverage was very slow today and I made a lot of errors,” she added.
Sayali, who is making her first appearance in the semi-finals on the senior circuit, was ecstatic after the victory.
“Frankly, speaking I didn’t expect to win because she won the first game quite comfortably. But in the middle of the second game when I won a few points at a stretch, I thought I can pull off the match,” she said.
World No. 26 Saina will be up against third seed Aditi Mutatkar of Maharashtra in the other semi-final. Aditi, earlier defeated Assam’s Abantika Deka 21-10, 21-11.