NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Top seeded P Gopi Chand looked in great form and so did almost all other seeds in the men's section as they made short work of their respective opponents to move into the quarter-finals of the BPL All-India Open Badminton Tournament at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here today.

There was, however, one upset in the men's singles when No 4 seed Sushant Saxena of Uttar Pradesh went down to Ajit Wijetilak 10-15, 3-15 in the first round in the morning. There were also numerous walk-overs, both in the women's singles and men's doubles events as most of them pulled out at the last minute.

Rajiv Bagga also bowed out when he lost to Anuj Gupta of Gujarat in three games. But the former national champion will chance his arms in the doubles event. Ajit Wijetilak, who ousted Sushant Saxena in the morning, displayed a gritty show against Kiran Kumar of Air India to enter the quarters.

This Karnataka lad, who trains at the BPL Academy and unseeded here, has the potential of making it big as he displayed his wares when be swept aside Saxena 15-10, 15-0 in the first round. Sushant played an excellent first game but committed several errors at the net.

In the second round, Ajit took the first game rather easily but looked worn out in the second when Kiran Kumar narrowed in on the slender lead to take the second at 15-13.

But in the decider, Ajit hardly gave Kiran Kumar any chance as he surged ahead with a 4-0 lead before conceding a point to the Air-India lad.

Among the women, Maharashtra's Firoza Batliwala struggled a bit before subduing Manju T Abraham 11-4, 3-11, 11-6. Manju kept Firoza on tenterhooks, particularly in the second game with some excellent mid-court play, to shut out the Firoza. But Firoza came strong in the third game to escape with a deserving victory.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.