Oscar, Saurav, Jinshu, Srujan in semis of Jr Ntl badminton

Chandigarh, Nov 28 (UNI) Saurav Kapoor of Haryana and Oscar Bansal of Chandigarh qualified for the boys singles semi-finals of the 31st Junior National Badminton Championships at the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex here today.

Executing his strokes with precision, Bansal pulled off another big surprise as he defeated second seed Akshya Dewalkar of Air India in straight games 21-17, 21-19 in a quarter-final encounter which lasted 35 minutes.

Saurav Kapoor also displayed courage and skill to oust experienced Ajay Jai Ram of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board in a well-contested quarter-final match at 11-21, 21-17, 21-19.

Oscar will meet Saurav in semi-finals while the second semi-final will be an all-AI affair as Jishnu Sanyal is pitted against Srujan Nandluri.

Meanwhile, Arundhati Pantawane (Maharashtra ), top seed Neha Pandit (Air India) and Aditi Mutatkar ( Maharashtra) qualified for the girls singles semi-final.

Arundhati ended the challenge of Monisha Vinayak of Karnataka 21-9, 21-18 while Neha Pandit defeated Ruth Misha of Karnataka 22-20, 21-19 in quarter-final matches.

In the third quarter-final contest, Aditi Mutatkar of Maharashtra outpointed Sonal More of Maharashtra 21-9, 21-10.

Results: Junior Girls Singles (Q-Finals): Arundhati Pantawane (Mah) bt Monisha Vinayak (Ktk) 21-9, 21-18; Neha Pandit (AI) bt Ruth Misha (Ktk) 22-20, 21-19; Aditi Mutatkar (Mah) bt Sonal More (Mah) 21-9, 21-10 Junior boys singles (QF): Saurav Kapoor (Haryana) bt Ajay Jai Ram (AI) 11-21, 21-17, 21-19 Oscar Bansal (Chandigarh) bt Akshya Dewalekar 21-17, 21-19 Junior Mixed Doubles (Pre Q-Finals): Saurav Kapoor and Kannu Priya Aggarwal (Har) bt NP Reddy and N Sikki Reddy (AP) 21-12, 21-17; K Vikranth Kumar (AP) and A Priya (TN) bt Rajan Kumar and Hosana Topno (Jhar) 21-12, 21-12; Ram C Vijay (Ker) and P Jyotsna (AP) bt Thirumal and M Suguna (Pondy) 21-14, 21-6; Harshil Shah and GM Nischita (Ktk) bt Oscar Bansal and Poornica (Chd) 21-8, 15-21, 21-16; Abhinav Parkash and Mohita Sahdev (Dli) bt Ravi Singla and Jyoti Rawat (Har) 21-17, 21-14; Prasad Shetty and Shweta Kelkar (Mah) bt Nikt Karnatak and Swati Sharma (Uttr) 21-13, 21-14.

UNI XC PDS RN2112