Top seed Ratna Jeet Tamang of Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) made a winning start to the Pushpalal Memorial National Open badminton tournament with a 21- 12, 21-14 win over Niraj Chaudhary of Surkhet in the men’s singles event in Lalitpur on Tuesday. 

The victory send Tamang into the last 16. Bishnu Katuwal of Nepal Police Club (NPC), Saroj Ansari of Nepalgunj, Pabin Linthep of TAC and Jeevan Acharya of Peace Fitness also won. Katuwal beat Akhil Shrestha 21-17, 21-9, Ansari saw off Dipesh Shakya 17-21, 21-17, 21-8 and Linthep, who is set to compete in Asian Junior Championship in Indonesia, upset sixth seed Dipak Bohara of NPC 9-21, 21-11, 21-18. Acharya overcame Indra Mahata 21-4, 21-11.   

Sudip Sedai, Sajan Krishna Tamrakar, Bijit Thapa, Nabin Shrestha, Prafull Maharjan, Nir Bikram Devkota, Irfan Ansari, Sanjiv Khadka, Dipesh Dhami, and Dilendra Pun also advanced.