National champion Dipesh Dhami opened the ninth Yonex Sunrise Puspa Lal Memorial Badminton tournament with easy wins over Irafan Ansari of Banke in Itahari on Tuesday.

In Group 'B' singles matches held for the top-seeded 16 shuttlers, the Armed Police Force’s player Dhami and Tribhuvan Army Club's Ratnajit Tamang made easy inroads to the second round. Dhami defeated Ansari 21-14, 21-14. In Group 'A',Tamang overcame the intense heat and APF’s Gautam Singh Kathayat 19-21, 21-9, 21-14. Tamang also defeated APF’s Suman Limbu 21-10, 21-13 in his second game.

Nepal Police’s Jiban Acharya defeated APF’s Kathayat 15-21, 21-19, 21-14 in another Group 'A' match. Ansari then lost to Nepal Army’s Praful Maharjan 11-21, 15-21 in his Group 'B' match. Sunil Joshi of Nepal Police beat APF’s Bijit Thapa Magar 21-16, 21-9. NPC's Acharya saw off APF’s Limbu 21-18, 24-22 in Group 'A' match. Another NPC shuttler Bishnu Katuwal was up by one set against Nepal Army’s Rukesh Maharjan in Group D but had to pull out due to fever. In Group 'C', Bikash Shrestha of Bhojpur got the better of NPC's Joshi 21-17, 21-14.

Nepal Army’s Ayushman Nagari, Kailali’s Amrit Chaudhary, Zest Badminton’s Anish Khatiwada, Banke’s Ansari, Jajarkot’s Raju Bhadel, Lalitpur’s Sashin Dangol and Dailekh’s Khagendra Bahadur Singh won their respective first-round matches in a separate men's singles category for players seeded below 16.

Alish Dangal of Khotang, Jaibi Saud of Kailali, Himal Chand of Kanchanpur, Shiva Sunar of Banke, Suraj Gupta of Dang, AAwaz Odari of Morang, Nepal Army’s David Thapa Magar, Miling Gurung of Taplejung, Safiq Idrisi of Dang, Binaya Chaudhary and Sunil Chaudhary of Saptari, and Kanchan Shrestha of Khotang progressed to the second round of the boys' U-17 singles category.