Sabina Panthi, Samjhana Khaling, Nangsala Devi Tamang and Puja Shrestha of APF reached the semifinals of the women´s singles on Tuesday.[break]
Panthi eased past Samjhana Sharma of Banke 21-4, 21-12 in the quarterfinal played at the APF Headquarters at Halchowk, Kathmandu.
Likewise, Khaling defeated her clubmate Sujana Shrestha 21-17, 21-15 and Tamang beat APF´s Mina Shrestha 21-13, 21-17. Puja Shrestha booked a spot in the last four after receiving a walkover in the quarterfinal.
Meanwhile, Nepal No 1 Bikash Shrestha of Nepal Police Club (NPC) along with other top-ranked players Sajan Krishna Tamrakar, Ratnajit Tamang and Dipesh Dhami of the hosts stormed into the the third round of men´s singles.
Shrestha had a 21-11, 21-11 straight set win over Devendra Khadka of Sunsari, Tamrakar eased past Raju Bishwakarma of Jhapa 21-11, 21-18, Tamang had a comfortable 21-10, 21-7 victory over Rajendra Khadka of Kathmandu and Dhami dispatched Damodar Khadka of Nepal Army Club (NAC) 21-10, 21-7 to make it through to the pre-quarterfinal stage.
Rajan Shiwakoti of the hosts ousted Sri Prasad Dhimal of Kathmandu 21-8, 21-12, Indra Mehata of APF outclassed Wilal Barsi of Kathmandu 21-16, 22-20, Sahadev Khadka of Kailali eased past Suman Limbu of APF 21-8, 21-17, and Pashupati Paneru of Kailali saw off Deepak Bohara of NPC 21-10, 21-5.
In other matches of the category, Basanta Bajracharya of Palpa, Bibek Shrestha of Lalitpur, Sanjeeb Khadka of Kailali and Ram Singh Chaudhary of Kailali won their respective second round matches, while APF´s Bishal Pradhan and NPC´s Bishnu Katuwal received walkovers.
In the U-17 girls´ singles, Shiksha Shrestha of Chitwan, Shreya Pradhan of Bhojpur and Amita Giri of Jhapa won their respective matches, while Bimala Adhikari of Nawalparasi received a walkover to enter the semifinals.
In the U-17 boys´ singles, Dipesh Dhami of APF, Santosh Khadka of Adarsha School, Gautam Kathayat of Kailali, Joseph Adhikari of APF and Ayush Bikram Shah of Kathmandu won their respective matches on Tuesday to advance into the pre-quarterfinals.
Similarly, the pairs of Nangsala Devi Tamang and Puja Shrestha, Bina Tulachan and Samjhana Sharma, and Mina Shrestha and Sujana Shrestha entered the women´s doubles semifinals.
In the men´s doubles of above 35 age group of inter-governmental service category, the pairs of Chiranjivi Kunwar and Ratna Pokharel, Narayan Datta Paudel and Narendra Kumar Singh, Shailendra Kumar Shrestha and Prem Kumar Shrestha as well as Prem Dhwaj Shah and Durga Bahadur Bhattarai of APF made it through to the last eight.
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