BADMINTON – RANITHMA Liyanage of Sri Lanka battled back from a game down yesterday to defeat Yashvi Bhat of India and advance to the women’s singles quarter-finals in the Al Sharif Group Bahrain International Series II 2024, powered by Yonex, currently being played in the kingdom at Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam (BKS) in Salmaniya.
The tournament’s main draws in both the women’s and men’s singles got underway yesterday on an exciting day of play.
The official opening ceremony also took place last night, attended by Indian Ambassador Vinod Jacob, Sri Lankan Ambassador Wijeratne Mendis, Philippine Embassy consul Bryan Jess Baguio, BKS general secretary Varghese Karakkal, and other high-ranking officials from the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the Bahrain Badminton and Squash Federation (BBSF), and BKS.
Liyanage lived up to her billing as the women’s singles second seed in her 15-21, 21-14, 21-16 win against Bhat and will next take on the victor of the round-of-16 clash between Mysha Omer Khan of the UAE and Aisha Zhumabek of Kazakhstan.
Also advancing yesterday to the women’s singles quarters were Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria, who beat Rashmi Mudalige of Sri Lanka 26-24, 21-11; Shiori Ebihara of Japan, who defeated Prerana Shet of India 16-21, 21-14, 21-14; and Wiktoria Dabczynska of Poland, who overcame Sreeyuthka Sreejith Parol of the UAE 21-18, 21-9.
Meanwhile, in the men’s singles, second seed Vishal Vasudevan of India advanced to the round of 16 following a hard-earned 21-23, 21-11, 21-16 win over Bahrain’s Adnan Ebrahim.
Vasudevan will next take on Mehdi Ansari of Iran, who was a comfortable 21-4, 21-8 winner against Vishal Pereira, also of Bahrain, yesterday.
Others to claim wins and advancing past the men’s opening phase were Iliyan Stoynov of Bulgaria, Mads Emil Monke of Denmark, Amirhossein Hasani of Iran, Aljallad Ahmad from Syria, and Athul John Mathew, Harshit Thakur, and Manraj Singh, all of India.
The competition is being held under the patronage of the BBSF. It is sanctioned by the BWF under the regional Badminton Asia confederation and it features players representing 20 countries from around the world.
Action continues today with singles and doubles matches amongst the competing men and women.
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