RITUPARNA, RIYA IN LAST-16

GUWAHATI:Former champion Rituparna Das (PSPB) and top seed Riya Mookerjee (Railways) put up a brilliant display to book their berths in the pre-quarter-finals of the 83rd Senior National Badminton Championships 2018-19 here on Wednesday. Former champion Sourabh Verma and 2017 runner-up Lakshya Sen also made it to the last-16. Rituparna, who was crowned champion in 2017, needed only 24 minutes to breeze past Namita Pathania 21-10, 21-7. Riya staved off some stiff resistance from ninth seeded Gayatri Gopichand to win 21-17, 21-17. Later, Sen continued his good run from the InterZonal competition with yet another facile 21-10, 21-10 victory over West Bengal’s top seed Arintap Dasgupta. Verma was equally dominant in his 21-13, 21-14 triumph over Md. Munawer.