The Lower-ranked players ruled the pre-quarterfinal stage of the Senior National Badminton Championships as all the top six women’s singles seeds, including defending champion Anmol Kharb exited the competition.

Anmol, who recently reached the finals of the Guwahati Masters Super 100 tournament, was defeated by 12th seed Shriyanshi Valishetty (21-12, 21-15) while 16th seed Tasnim Mir packed-off top seed Aakarshi Kashyap, 21-19, 21-17.

On the other courts, 15th seed Shreya Lele continued her impressive run in Bengaluru as she came from a game down to beat former champion and second seed Anupama Upadhyaya,13-21, 21-18, 21-14.

Meanwhile, 13th seed Devika Sihag kept her composure to beat fourth seed and last edition runners-up Tanvi Sharma and unseeded Rujula Ramu accounted for fifth seed Mansi Singh.

Seventh seed Isharani Baruah, who got the better of the promising Rakshitha Sree S 23-21, 21-19 is now the highest seed left among the last eight and will take on Tasnim Mir in the quarter-finals.

Alap Mishra upsets Ayush Shetty

Former world junior championships bronze medallist and second seed Ayush Shetty was knocked out of the championships as he went down 15-21, 21-11, 5-21) against 14th seed Alap Mishra.

National Games gold medallist M Tharun was no match to former champion Mithun Manjunath’s guile as he went down in straight games, 18-21, 12-21.

There was an upset galore even in the doubles events with women’s doubles top seeds Rutaparna and Swetaparna Panda beaten by junior national champions Tanoo Chandra and Lalrempuii.

On the other hand, Shreya Balaji and Deepta S then packed off fifth seeds Prerana Alvekar and Mrunmayee Deshpande 21-18, 23-21.

In the mixed doubles category, Ayush Agarwal and Shruti Mishra combined well to beat sixth seed Sathwik Reddy K and Vaishnavi Khadkekar while Shivam Sharma and Poorvisha S Ram accounted for fifth seeds Ashith Surya and Amrutha P.