Bhubaneswar: The pre-quarter round of the international badminton tournament “Odisha Masters 2025” was held at the Jawaharlal Neheru Indoor Stadium in Cuttack.
As many as 39 matches were held in all categories, including women’s singles, men’s singles, women’s doubles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi attended the three-day international competition as the chief guest and boosted the enthusiasm of the players.
Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari, Cuttack Sadar MLA Prakash Chandra Sethi, Odisha State Badminton Association President Rajesh Prabhakar Patil, Sports and Youth Affairs Director Dr. Yedula Vijay, Cuttack Collector Dattatreya Bhausaheb Shinde, Cuttack Municipal Corporation Commissioner Kiran Deep Kaur were present.
In the women’s singles played on the third day, most of the seeded players have reached the quarter-finals after playing well in the men’s singles.
In the pre-quarters of the women’s section, top-seeded Indian player Unnati Hooda defeated Thailand’s Tidaprana Kleibaisun 21-7, 21-14 to reach the quarter-finals. The other players who reached the women’s quarters were third-seeded Tanvi Sharma, fifth-seeded Anupama Upadhyay and sixth-seeded Anmol Kharba.
In the men’s singles section, top-seeded Tharun Manepalli also reached the quarters after losing to his countryman Govinda Krishna 21-16, 12-21 and 21-11. The other players who reached the quarterfinals are last season’s singles champion and eighth seed Sathish Kumar, second seed Kiran George and seventh seed Shankar Subramanian.
In the women’s doubles, top-seeded Bulgarian pair of Gabriela Stoeva and Stefanie Stoeva defeated Indonesian pair of Velisha Kristina and Agnia Srirahu 21-19, 21-13 to reach the quarterfinals. The other pairs that have reached the women’s doubles quarterfinals are the Indian pair Ashwini Bhatt and Shikha Gautam, sixth seeds Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi and eighth seeds Indonesian pair Siti Sarah Azhar and Ditya Ramadhani.
All the quarterfinal matches of this international competition, which is being jointly organised by the Badminton World Federation, Badminton Federation of India, Sports and Youth Affairs Department of Odisha Government and Odisha State Badminton Association, will be played tomorrow, December 12.
