Syal upsets Bhullar, top two advances in SRF Matchplay

The All-India SRF Matchplay Championship keeps its excitement going as it produced quite a few interesting results after the end of second round at the Delhi Golf Club here on Wednesday.

Sandeep Syal and former Indian Open champion Ali Sher scored an upset victory over third seed Gaganjeet Bhullar and Rahul Ganapathy even as top two seeds Ashok Kumar and Digvijay Singh advanced to the pre-quarter final stage with consummate ease.

Tournament’s top seed and defending champion Ashok Kumar cruised into the last 16 as he trounced Vinod Kumar 7 & 6 to set up pre-quarters clash with R Srinivas, who got the better of Amardip Sinh Malik with a score of 4 & 3.

Second seed Digvijay Singh posted an emphatic 5 & 4 win against Sri Lanka’s B G Lalith Kumara to set up a clash with Naman Dawar in the next round. Dawar ended Jaiveer Virk’s challenge with a 5 & 3 win over him.

The biggest upset of the day was third seed Gaganjeet Bhullar’s lost to 35th seed Sandeep Syal. The match went down to the wire as Syal won 1 up. Syal won the first, sixth, ninth, 11th, 17th and 18th holes while Bhullar won the second, eighth, 10th, 14th and 16th.

“I didn’t play exceptionally well today but just hung in there. I was one down after 16 holes but fought back by wrapping up the 17th and 18th holes. A good tee shot on the 17th helped me bounce back,” said Syal after his remarkable win.

Sandeep Syal now faces Harendra Gupta in the round of 16. Gupta also recorded a one up second round win against Roop Singh.

Ali Sher’s win against Rahul Ganapathy was one of the other highlights of the day. The old warhorse Ali Sher won 1 up against Ganapathy showing the door to the multiple winners on the PGTI this season. Ali Sher will next meet C Muniyappa who defeated Gurbaaz Mann 3 & 2.

Fifth seed Lam Chih Bing of Singapore prevailed over Kolkata’s Shankar Das being 2 holes up with 1 to be played. It was a see-saw battle as Lam Chih started well and then Shankar caught up and established a 1 up lead at the turn.

Lam Chih finally came through by winning five holes on the trot on the back nine. “I didn’t play well on the front nine but came back strongly on the back nine. Shankar’s bogeys on the back nine helped my cause,” said Lam Chih.

Lam Chih Bing will take on Mukesh Kumar in the pre-quarters. Mukesh beat Sri Lankan Anura Rohana 4 & 3.

Manav Jaini secured a 2 & 1 win over Shaurya Singh. Shaurya had upset fourth seed Harmeet Kahlon o Tuesday. Jaini now faces Uttam Singh Mundy in the last 16. Mundy beat A S Lehal 5 & 3.

Shamim Khan emerged victorious against Shiv Prakash in the closest match of the day. Shamim won on the third playoff hole (21st hole) while in the other matches of the day Vivek Bhandari beat Chiragh Kumar 4 & 3, Arjun Singh defeated Himmat Singh Rai 5 & 4 and Vijay Kumar prevailed overt Randhir Singh Ghotra 3 & 2.

All the pre-quarters and the quarter-finals of the event will be played on Thursday.