Arundhat ousted, Guru Sai enters finals

Bangalore, Oct 5 (UNI) In a major upset, second seed Arun Nandaluri of Air India and fourth seed Oscar Bansal of Chandigarh were ousted, even as top seed Guru Sai Dutt of Andhra Pradesh, maintaining his winning spree, stormed into finals in Under-19 category of the Union Bank of India sixth All India Junior Ranking Badminton Tournament here today.

While Guru after conceding the first set at 21-23 to Oscar, bounced back to thrash the Oscar by winning the remaining two sets 21-10 and 21-18.

Guru will clash in the finals with third seed Abhimanyu Singh of Madhya Pradesh, who showed door to second seed Arun Nandaluri of Air India 21-14, 21-12 in the semi-finals.

In a Girls' section, top seed Arundhati Pantawane of Maharashtra was trounced by qualifier N Sikky Reddy of Andhra Pradesh by 17-21, 15-21. In the clash for title, Reddy would meet second seed Ruth Misha of hosts Karnataka, who defeated her statemate Ashwini Ponnappa 21-7, 21-13 in Under-19 category.

Results: U-19 (Semifinals) Boy's: S1 R M V Guru Sai Dutt (AP) bt S4 Oscar Bansal (Chd) 21-23, 21-10, 21-18; S3 Abhimanyu Singh (MP) bt S2 Arun Nandaluri (AI) 21-14, 21-12.

Girls: N Sikky Reddy (AP) bt S1 Arundhati Pantawane (Mah) 21-17, 21-15; S2 V Ruth Misha (Kar) bt Ashwini Ponnappa (Kar) 21-7,21-13 U-16 Boy's: S1 B Sai Praneeth (AP) bt S4 Anurag Thakkar (MP) 21-12,21-6; S3 H S Prannoy (Ker) bt S7 Sameer Verma (MP) 23-21,21-10 Girls': S1 N Sikky Reddy (AP) bt Saee Purandare (Mah) 21-11,21-15 S2 Prajakta Sawant (Mah) bt Sheshadri Sanyal(WB) 21-7,11-3 conceded.

UNI