In the men’s singles second round matches, Mithun defeated third seed Bharat Raghav 21-9, 21-18 and Varma got the better of Abhinav Garg 21-17, 21-17. Defending champion Chirag Sen also started his campaign in style with a 21-15, 21-15 win over Jeet Patel.
In women’s singles, Anmol Kharb hammered Deepali Gupta 21-8, 21-6 to make a winning start while last edition’s losing finalist Tanvi Sharma also eased into the third round with a 21-8, 21-6 win over Flora Engineer.
While the favourites put their best foot forward, there were a few upsets that underlined the depth of talent in Indian badminton.
In women’s singles, Rujula Ramu upset 10th seed Surya Charishma Tamiri 21-19, 19-21, 21-17 while Jiya Rawat came from a game behind to beat ninth seed Shruti Mundada 25-27, 21-14, 21-10.
In the men’s singles section, Rohan Gurbani proved too good for 11th seed K. Lokesh Reddy, winning 21-15, 21-1 while Raghu M. defeated 15th seeded Karthik Jindal 21-19, 21-16.
It was the win of experience over youth in women’s doubles with Kanika Kanwal and Bharti Pal teaming up to upset sixth seeds Amrutha P. and Radhika Sharma 25-23, 21-17 in the top national event for the season.