Patel won 15-9, 12-15, 17-14 on the opening day of the tournament today and will meet Abhiskek Kejriwal in the second round.

Kejriwal, meanwhile, had an easy opening encounter against Kiran Desai, winning 15-2, 15-2.

Vaibhav Khatri overcame a 3-10 first game deficit against Nikhil Makhijani before recovering to win 15-12, 1-15, 15-9, the second game a mere aberration in the final result.

Makhijani, partnering Jaideep Jhangiani, ended a disappointing day with an hour-long doubles loss to Swapnil Vyavaharkar and Rahul Weling 15-12, 14-17, 17-15 in a match that could have gone either way.

In the sub-junior (under-13) boys singles, Shahrukh Naik displayed superb court-coverage to master Jehzeel Master in a match lasting a little over 30 minutes. Naik put aside a poor second game when he found the netmore often than he would have liked, to enter the second round with a 15-2, 8-15, 15-9 victory.

The womens singles, which has only seven entries, starts from the quarter-final stage tomorrow.

Results (all first round)

Mens singles: Raj Panchmatia bt Suresh Jadhav 15-3, 16-17, 15-6.

Boys singles: Sudhir Kumar bt Abhishek Lakhotia 15-3, 15-4; Vaibhav Khatri bt Nikhil Makhijani 15-12, 1-15, 15-9; Rushab Patel bt Rohan Narayan 15-9, 12-15, 17-14; Abhishek Kejriwal bt Kiran Desai 15-2, 15-2; Jaideep Jhangiani bt Avijit Singh Kashyap 15-4, 15-1.

Boys doubles: Nikhil Makhijani/Jaideep Jhangiani bt Swapnil Vyavaharkar/Rahul Weling 15-12, 14-17, 17-15.

Midget boys singles: Satyajeet Deshpande bt Abhinav Shukla 15-8, 15-3; Rishab Agarwal bt Abhishek Mohatta 15-5, 15-1.

Midget girls singles: Shradha Bharati bt Sneha Diwan 11-9, 11-6; Pooja Brar bt Kanisha Vora 11-2, 11-0; Priyanka Twade bt Sabina Chhabria 11-6, 11-4.