By IANS
New Delhi : Top two seeds Ashok Kumar and Digvijay Singh registered comfortable victories in the second round to reach the pre-quarter finals of the SRF All India Professional Golf Matchplay Championship.
Sandeep Syal upstaged third seed Gaganjeet Bhullar while Rahul Ganapathy’s campaign came to an end as he lost to former Indian Open champion Ali Sher.
Defending champion and first seed Ashok cruised into the last 16 as he trounced Vinod Kumar 7 and 6 and will now meet R. Srinivas in the pre-quarters. Srinivas got the better of Amardip Sinh Malik with a score of 4 and 3.
Second seed Digvijay Singh posted an emphatic 5 and 4 win against Sri Lanka’s B.G. Lalith Kumara to set up a clash with Naman Dawar in the next round. Dawar ended Jaiveer Virk’s challenge with a 5 and 3 win.
The biggest upset of the day was third seed Bhullar’s loss to fifth seed Syal. The match went down to the wire as Syal won 1 up. Syal won the first, sixth, ninth, 11th, 17th and 18th holes while Bhullar won the second, eighth, 10th, 14th and 16th.
“I did not play exceptionally well today but just hung in there. I was one down after 16 holes but fought back by wrapping up the 17th and 18th holes,” said Syal, who now faces Harendra Gupta in the round of 16.
Ali Sher also won 1 up against Ganapathy. Sher’s next opponent will be C. Muniyappa who defeated Gurbaaz Mann 3 and 2.
Fifth seed Lam Chih Bing of Singapore prevailed over Kolkata’s Shankar Das being 2 holes up with 1 to be played.
In the pre-quarters, Lam Chih Bing will take on Mukesh Kumar, who beat Sri Lankan Anura Rohana 4 and 3.
Manav Jaini secured a 2 and 1 win over Shaurya Singh. Shaurya had upset fourth seed Harmeet Kahlon in round one. Jaini now faces Uttam Singh Mundy in the last 16. Mundy beat A.S. Lehal 5 and 3.
Shamim Khan emerged victorious against Shiv Prakash in the closest match of the day. Shamim won on the third playoff hole (21st hole).
In other matches Vivek Bhandari beat Chiragh Kumar 4 and 3, Arjun Singh beat Himmat Singh Rai 5 and 4 and Vijay Kumar beat Randhir Singh Ghotra 3 and 2.