Unseeded Vivek Ratan shocks top seed Abhyansh
LUCKNOW: Unseeded Vivek Ratan’s name was hardly known to anybody before he started his quest against the top seed Abhyansh Singh at the court no 3 on Monday but as the match finished his name was on the lips of everyone.
Yes, Vivek of Bulandsahar caused the major upset on the opening day of the Dev Narain Memorial UP State Junior Badminton Tournament, knocking down top seed Abhyansh of hosts UP Badminton Academy, at the Babu Banarasi Das UP Badminton Academy here.
In his second round match in the boys under-19 category, Vivek didn’t care about the rivals seeding and his home advantage even while playing before an unfamiliar crowd.
His stroke-play and tossing of shuttle surprised Abhyansh, who found his young opponent a tough nut to crack. The local boy tried to narrow the lead, playing some powerful strokes down the line, but Vivek raced to 30-22 to finish off in style.
Seventh seed Junaid Ansari of Bareilly defeated Vaibhav Chaoudhary of Moradabad 30-12, whereas 10th seed Harsh Singh of Aligarh defeated Himansh Batra of Ballia 30-19 in other second round matches in the category. A record 197 matches were played on day of the three-day championship. In the boys under-17 singles, top seed Ayush Raj Gupta of Allahabad did little hard work to beat Banda’s Mohd Akram 30-20 in a second round game, whereas Bareilly’s Dinesh Maurya beat Naveen Kumar Pal of Varanasi 30-20.