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Gopichand, Popat score easy victories

Top seeds Pullela Gopichand and Aparna Popat, both from Indian Oil Corporation, and other fancied players cruised into the semi-finals of the fifth BPL Open Badminton Tournament in Bangalore today.

Reigning national champion Gopichand ended the dream run of qualifier Arvind Bhat of Karnataka, thrashing him 15-4, 15-3, while fourth seed Nikhil Kanetkar, also of IOC, was stretched by Kiran Kumar of Air India.

After losing the first game, Kumar came back strongly in the second to level scores. However, Kanetker pulled up his socks to take the third game and match 15-8, 11-15, 15-4.

Others to make the last four were Siddarth Jain of ONGC, who whipped Chetan Anand of Air India 15-7, 15-5 and Sachin Ratti of Railways, who accounted for Abhishek Bakshi of Air India at 15-4, 10-15, 15-4.

In the women's section, Popat's demolition of her opponents continued as she toyed with C H Deepti before winning 11-5, 11-2. She was joined in the last four by B R Meenakshi of Karnataka, Jwala of Andhra Pradesh and second seed Manjusha Kanwar of IOC.

UNI