The women’s singles top seed and the men’s singles second seed were knocked out in the first round of the All India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament in Bengaluru on Thursday. This is one of the two tournaments that serves as a selection trial for the Asian Games in August.
Women’s singles top seed Vaishnavi Bhale, who recently represented India at the Uber Cup, was beaten in straight games by Shivani Pathi 21-17, 21-14 in what was a surprising result early on in the day.
In the men’s singles draw, second seed Mithun Manjunath was beaten by India international Sourabh Verma 21-18, 21-15. The top seed, Pratul Joshi, was also stretched before he came through in three games against Pranay R 16-21, 21-19, 21-18.
Fifth seed Chirag Sen got the better of another India international, RMV Gurusaidutt, after three games 21-17, 15-21, 21-18. Chirag’s younger brother Lakshya Sen, who represented India at the Thomas Cup recently, was also taken to three games by Kiran Kumar M before he won 17-21, 21-11, 21-18.
There were no notable upsets in the three doubles draws on the opening day, with most seeded pairs coming through. The second and third rounds of the tournaments in both singles events will be held on Friday.
Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this report stated that Saurabh Varma, and not Sourabh Verma, had defeated Mithun Manjunath. This has been corrected.