Chand, Mukharjee, Pradhan, Thapa, Pakharin enter pre-quarterfinals

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, April 26: In the ongoing 3rd Carlsberg Open Badminton Championship JB Chand, Debu Mukharjee, Bishal Pradhan, Surya Thapa, Dilman Pakharin all notched up comfortable second round win to secure place in the pre-quarter-finals of the men’s singles event, Wednesday.

In the opening match of the second round men’s singles event, JB Chand looked in no trouble at all against much fable opposition in Arun Bhattachan. Chand, carrying a perfect execution of most of the shots, forced Bhattachan on back foot straight away by taking a 1-0 lead in the best of three games match, winning by 15-3.

He was equally superb in the second game, barely allowing Bhattachan with any chance to return back to progress through with a 15-4 win.

Similarly, Debu Mukharjee secured his place in the last sixteen, beating DB Gurung with the score of 15-7, 15-2 while Bishal Pradhan, Surya Thapa and Dilman Pakhrin looked impressive in their straight game win over Durga Kaji (15-7, 15-12), Milan Rajbhandari (15-4, 15-11) and Rakesh Shrestha (15-5, 15-5).

Among all the men’s singles played on the second day, only four of them came alive, prolonging to the final third game.

Indra Bahadur Gurung, after being quite erratic towards the end of the opening game against Mahesh Swar, conceded it at 14-17 on play-off. But he began to look a different player and playing far better than in the first one to level back at 1-1 by overcoming the stiff challenge from Swar at 15-12. Swar failed to match Gurung’s stature in the deciding game and went down tamely at 15-1.

Prabhat Khattri and Chandra Shekhar Lama also came back from a game down in their respective matches to stay alive in the competition. Khattri beat Santosh Mudhbary by 13-15, 15-10, 15-7 while Lama’s winning score against Sandeep Sthapit was 12-15, 15-2, 15-1.

In the other match, Dan Bahadur Gole, after much drama in his match against Krishna Thapa eventually took things under his control by winning it at 15-9, 10-15, 15-11.

Meanwhile the pair of Rajani Shrestha and Mina Pakharin entered the women’s doubles semifinals following a straight game, 15-3, 15-6 win over Krishna Pun and Pampha Sunuwar.

Today’s other results:

Men’s singles: Subash Moktan bt Gaurav Shrestha (15-3, 15-7), Anup Thapa bt Til Bikram Limbu (15-10, 15-1), Dornath Sedai bt Sagar Prasad Bhatta (15-5, 15-3), Nirman Shrestha bt Purushottam Chhetri (15-1, 15-7), Krishna Gurung bt NB Sunuwar (15-11, 15-2), Rajendra Shakya bt Manjesh Bom Malla (15-3, 15-12).

The game is being organised by Bull’s Gymnasium under the sponsorship of Gorkha Brewery.

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• Two pairs enter final