But second seed Manjusha Kanwar and fourth seed Neelima Choudhary had to draw deep from their reserves to seal their berths in the last eight. Manjusha was drained out in the decider against youthful Keerti Kadam, a qualifier. But what mattered in the end was the 11-2, 8-11, 11-4 verdict.Pooja Parekh gave more than a handful of problems for Neelima, keeping her pinned to the baseline. Neelima still managed to fashion a 11-4, 11-4 win.Southpaw Feroza Batliwala smashed her way into the quarters routing Sri Lankan I Rohini 11-5, 11-0. Former national champion PVV Lakshmi was all grace though not all at ease while beating Ch Deepti 11-4, 11-3.

India's Sampada Shetye was an equally impressive 11-0, 11-2 winner over Sri Lanka's T Abey Wickrama.

The Indian men too were on a roll andmost of the matches pitted one Indian against the other. Eighth seeded Sachin Ratti put out Sushant Saxena 15-11, 15-9 and the promising Chetan Anand downed the sixth seed Srikant Bakshi 13-15, 15-4, 15-5 to make the quarter-finals.

RESULTS

Men's singles (pre-quarterfinals): Palinda Halangoda (SL) bt Ahmed Riyaz (Mld) 15-13 15-6; Yeoh Kay Bin (Mas) bt Parag Modi (Ind) 15-11 15-2; Sachin Ratti (Ind) bt Sushant Saxena (Ind) 15-11 15-9; Nikhil Kanetkar (Ind) bt Mayur Ghatnekar (Ind) 15-10 15-2; Ajit Wijetilek (Ind) bt Mangrish Palekar (Ind) 12-15, 15-9 15-7; Abinn Shyam Gupta (Ind) bt Anuj Gupta (Ind) 15-7, 15-3; Leo Tusen Seng (Mas) bt T Edinshinghe (SL) 15-6, 15-10.

Men's doubles: Chan Chong Meng/Germy Gan (Mas) bt Mossa Nashid/Mohammad Sharat (Mld) 15-5 15-2; Ajit Wijetilek/Sandesh Choutha bt S Kumara Pennth/G D Kumara (SL) 15-6 15-7; George Thomas/Markose Bristow (Ind) bt Sachin Ratti/Harish Chandar (Ind) 15-0, 15-1; Ajaykanwar/Vijayadeep Singh Ali Naseee bt Abdulla/Ahmed Riyaz(Mld) 15-2 15-1; Anirudh Rao/Anuj Gupta bt Palinda Goda/TE Desinghe (SL) 12-15, 15-9, 15-10.

Women's singles (pre-quarterfinals): Aparna Poppat (Ind) bt M Raja Reddy (Ind) 11-0, 11-0; P V V Lakshmi (Ind) bt CH Deepti (Ind) 11-4, 11-3; Firoza Batliwala (Ind) bt I Rohini (SL) 11-5, 11-0; Parul Priyadarshini (Ind) bt Nirmala Kotnis 11-6, 11-1; Sampada Shetye (Ind) bt T Abey Wickrama (SL) 11-0, 11-2; Divya Ramesh (Ind) bt D Desilva (SL) 11-4, 11-4; Neelima Choudhry (Ind) bt Pooja Parekh (Ind) 11-9, 11-7.

Mixed doubles PQF: Sandesh Choutha-Vinaya Shetty (India) bt S Janaka- C Desilva (SL) 17-14, 15-6, Harish Chandar-Archana Deodhar (India) bt M Fernando- I Rohini (SL) 15-10, 11-15, 15-4.