Top shuttlers including HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma get byes to reach 2nd round of Senior Nationals

Patna: Top Indian shuttlers, including defending champion Sameer Verma and top seed H S Prannoy, progressed to the second round of the men's singles competition after getting byes at the 81st Senior National Championship here today.

Newly-crowned junior World No.1, Lakshya Sen, former champion Sourabh Verma, fifth seed Pratul Joshi, sixth seed Shreyansh Jaiswal and fourth seed Harsheel Dani, who had reached the semifinals at Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold last week, seventh seed Daniel Farid S also received byes to reach the next round at the Patliputra Sports Complex.

In women's singles, top seed Tanvi Lad, second seed Rituparna Das, fifth seed Neha Pandit, 13th seed Rasika Raje, 14th seed Arundhati Pantawane and eighth seed Riya Pillai also advanced to the second round after getting byes.

Among others, Siril Varma defeated Abhishek Saini 21-13 21-16, Mithun M stunned 12th seed Aditya Joshi 21-14 21-11 and Munawer Mohammed shocked ninth seed Chirag Sen 21-17 10-21 21-19 to reach the second round of men's singles.

Among the seeded players, 16th seed Hemanth MG beat Oscar Bansal 21-10 21-19, 15th seed Ansal Yadav spanked Bhaaradwaj Palakurti 21-3 21-5, 11th seed Shubham Prajapati brushed aside Prateek Mahajan 21-7 21-11 and 10th seed Bodhit Joshi defeated Akash Thakur 21-16 21-12 in men's singles.

In some of the most exciting matches of the opening day, Siddharth Pratap Singh staved off a spirited challenge from Adrian George 25-27 21-17 21-16, 13th seed Rahul Yadav C survived a scare against Abhishek Sadanand Kulkarni 23-25 21-15 21-17 and Swarnaraj Bora struggled past Dhruv Rawat 23-21 21-23 21-8 in men's singles.