Nepal No 1 Ratnajit Tamang along with big guns Bikash Shrestha, Prince Dahal, Nangshal Tamang and Sita Rai advanced to the second round of Annapurna Nepal International Series Badminton Championships at the Dashrath Stadium covered hall in Kathmandu on Wednesday.

Rashila Maharjan, Shova Gauchan and Jessica Gurung were the big casualties as they lost the women's singles first round matches. In the men's singles, Ratnajit saw off Shishir Dwivedi of India 21-25, 21-16 while Shrestha beat compatriot Praful Maharjan 13-21, 21-17, 21-14. Teenage sensation Dahal rallied from a set down to beat Ameya Oak of India 21-23, 21-14, 21-16. Nabin Shrestha brushed off Mayank Ahuja of India 21-16, 21-8.

In the women's singles, Nepal No 1 Nangsal dispatched her compatriot Shova Gauchan 21-8, 21-11 while Rai overcame first set deficit to beat India's Anubha Kaushik 16-21, 21-15, 21-14. Nepal No 8 Rai said she failed to control the shuttlecocks in the first set before recovering in the following sets. "As the match wore on, I read the opponent’s game and took advantage of her weaknesses to turn the result in my favour," said the 26-year-old. "I felt that my opponent was not physically fit and I tried to exploit her weakness."

Emerging star Maharjan lost in straight sets 21-9, 21-8 against Japan's Yuri Nakamura while Jessica went down to Gayatri Gopichand of India 21-11, 21-8. Dipesh Dhami and Dev Raj Rana of Nepal also won their men's singles matches. Dhami overcame Saharsh Mohan of India 21-12, 21-19 and Rana beat compatriot Irfan Ansari 16-21 ,21-19, 21-18.

Nepali pair Bikash Shrestha and Bijit Thapa Magar won the doubles match against Hisham Aziz and Prabhat Chaudhary of India 21-12, 19-21, 21-12. Thapa had earlier lost his singles match 21-12, 21-8 to Malaysia's Datu Hohd Shah.

Gautam Kathayet of Nepal went down against Malaysia's Tai Zhe Chuan 21-18, 21-16 while Bilal Warish of Nepal also faced a similar fate against India's Tarun Reddy Katam. Warish lost 21-10 ,21-19. Home team's female shuttlers Ranjana Bhatta, Safee Khatri, Tara Ale, Amita Giri, Samjhana Sharma and Manisha Khadka all lost their singles matches.

Other Nepali male players to lose their singles opening round matches were Prashun Khatri, Purna Bahadur Thapa, Riyaz Ansari, Nirajan Devkota, Deepak Bohara, Pemba Sherpa, Sujan Shrestha, Jivan Acharya, Sajan Krishna Tamrakar and Sunil Joshi.