KATHMANDU, Oct 2: Tribhuvan Army duo Ratna Jeet Tamang and Dipesh Dhami have advanced to the pre-quarterfinal of the male's singles event in the first edition of the Zest Open National Badminton on Sunday.
In the matches played at the Zest Badminton Academy's court, Basundhara, Ratna Jeet and Dipesh defeated Prince Dahal and Bharun Singh of the home team in the straight sets of 21-13, 21-8 and 21-11, 21-18 respectively.
Army duo Ratna Jeet, Dipesh into semis
In other matches of same event, Bishnu Katuwal of Nepal Police overcame Army's Rupesh Maharjan 21-16, 21-12 while Gauchan Kathayat of Zest defeated Sudip Sedai of APF 21-13, 21-11 to book their places in the last 16.
Similarly, Sanjiv Khadka of Kailali, Nabin Shrestha of Army, Bijit Thapa Magar of APF and Bikash Shrestha of Bhojpur also progressed into the pre-quarter beating their respective opponents.
In the male's doubles of the tournament, the pair of Bhugol Gurung and Laxman Shrestha of Pokhara advanced into the pre-quarterfinal defeating the pair of Bishal Lingthep and Basanta Limbu of Tinchuli 21-11, 21-14. Similarly, the APF duo Indra Mahato and Pankaj Chand overcame the pair of Dinesh Rai and Santosh Bhattarai of Flex 21-13, 16-21, 21-10 while the pair of Sunil Joshi and Gautam Kathayat beat the pair of Bikash Karki and Binay Khati of Palpa 21-9, 21-19 to book their places in last 16.
Likewise, the pair of Sandip Shrestha and Ritesh Thapa of Kapilvastu and the pair of Ram Rai and Suraj Maharjan of Army enjoyed walkover from the pair of Sunil Shrestha and Abhisekh Boss of Makwanpur and the pair of Sashi Rawat and Arjun Chhyantal respectively to advance to the last 16.
The pre-quarter and quarterfinal matches of the men's singles and doubles and master 35 plus will start from Monday according to the organizer.
