MUMBAI: Women’s top seed Neha Pandit of Pune was forced to battle hard before overcoming a gallant Hrissha Dubey of Greater Mumbai in an exciting second round, in the Khar Gymkhana-MBA Senior Inter District & Senior Open State Badminton Championship on Thursday.

In a draw where both earned first round byes, Pandit snatched a hard-fought 15-11, 15-10 win over her CCI opponent to advance to the pre-quarter-finals, along with second seed Vaishnavi Bhale of Nagpur who stopped Anushree Burad of Nashik with a 15-3, 15-4 win.

Mrunmayee Deshpande of Thane beat Tanmayi Shinde of Solapur 15-13, 15-12 in another close women’s second round encounter that also saw Shilpi Pusadkar of Nashik earn a hard-fought 15-9, 15-7 win over Tejasvi Pilankar of Ratnagiri.

The other significant winners were Mumbai Suburban’s Riya Pillai and Shruti Mundada of Pune.

RESULTS: (Second round) 
Women: Neha Pandit (Pune) bt Hrissha Dubey (Greater Mumbai) 15-11, 15-10; Mudra Dhainje (Pune) bt Deiya Srinivasan (Thane) 15-3, 15-8; Riya Pillai (Mumbai Suburaban) bt Radhika Deshmukh (Thane) 15-3, 15-6; Anagha Karandikar (Mumbai Suburaban) bt Anushka Patil (Dhule) 15-11, 15-4; Shruti Mundada (Pune) bt Rutuja Pawar (Aurangabad) 15-3, 15-8; Shilpi Pusadkar (Nashik) bt Tejasvi Pilankar (Ratnagiri) 15-9, 15-7; Anjali Kshirsagar (Nagpur) bt Nidhi Patel (Greater Mumbai) 15-7, 15-8; Revati Devasthale (Pune) bt Mekhla Ambekar (Mumbai Suburaban) 15-4, 15-5; Mrunmayee Deshpande (Thane) bt Tanmayi Shinde (Solapur) 15-13, 15-12; Mrunmayi Saoji (Nagpur) bt Ruta Gore (Pune) 15-6, 15-7; Gargee Degvekar (BOR) bt Vrushali Prabhu (SIN) 15-9, 15-7; Vaishnavi Iyer (Mumbai Suburaban) bt Shraddha Hakke (Mumbai Suburaban) 15-2, 15-2; Manya Avlani (Mumbai Suburaban) bt Ramsha Farooqui (Nanded) 15-14, 8-15, 15-6.