Nepali top seed shuttlers Ratnajit Tamang, Dipesh Dhami, Bikash Shrestha and Nabin Shrestha won their opening round matches of the Yonex Sunrise Nepal International Series badminton tournament on Tuesday.
Nepali top seed shuttlers Ratnajit Tamang, Dipesh Dhami, Bikash Shrestha and Nabin Shrestha won their opening round matches of the Yonex Sunrise Nepal International Series badminton tournament on Tuesday.
At the Nepal Armed Police Force headquarters in Halchowk, Tamang had toughest ride of all while going past India’s Dhruv Kumar in three sets. Tamang won the first set 22-20 before Kumar bounced back taking the second set 24-22. The Nepal No 1 - fresh from winning the Pushpa Lal Memorial National Badminton Championships for a record seventh time - made safe passage claiming the last set 21-14.
Dhami eased to a 21-8, 21-11 victory over Ahmed Nibal of Maldives, Bikash beat another Maldivian shuttler Sarim Mohammed 21-15, 21-7 and Nabin got the better of Mohammad Salman Khan of Bangladesh 21-15, 21-19. Other Nepali players winning the first round were emerging youngster Prince Dahal, Praful Maharjan and Bijit Thapa Magar.
Dahal was tested in his match against Mangal Singha of Bangladesh 21-15, 15-21, 21-9, Praful saw off Christopher Paul of Mauritius 21-19, 21-14 and Thapa Magar sidelined Suverson Lama of Bhutan 21-19, 21-7. Sajan Krishna Tamrakar, Sunil Joshi, Rukesh Maharjan, Deepak Bohora, Irfan Ansari and Gautam Kathayat failed to cross the first hurdle.
Tamrakar went down to Cao Cuong Pham of Vietnam 21-10, 21-15, Josh lost to Amir Jabbari of Iran 21-17, 21-14 and Maharjan was routed 21-5, 21-9 by Teck Zhi Soo of Malaysia. Bohora lost his first set to Hussain Zayen Shaheed of Maldives 21-13 but remained in hunt with a 24-22 victory in the second set. An equally competitive third set saw Shaheed winning 23-21.
Ansari lost to Amir Saeed of Pakistan 21-12, 21-17 and Kathayet was no match to Malaysian Goh Giap Chin losing 21-7, 21-6. In the qualification round, Sudeep Sedhain and Samjhana Sharma lost their respective matches. Sedhain was beaten by Gaurav Singha of Bangladesh 15-21, 23-21, 21-15 in the men’s singles, while in women’s singles Sharma bowed out to Meghana Kulkarni of India 21-18, 21-17.
Sima Rajbanshi gave a walk over to Durva Gupta of India. The series is third tier programme of the World Badminton Federation (BWF) after the top-tier BWF Super Series and Grand Prix Gold and Grand Prix tournaments. The Nepal International Series will see 178 shuttlers—117 in men’s and 61 in women’s categories—from 20 nations vying in five different events. Nepal is fielding 29 shuttlers.
7.12°C Kathmandu
