Jamshedpur, Aug. 26: The inaugural matches of the 41st Mohun Memorial Badminton Tournament at Mohun Ahuja stadium today saw some powerful strokes by state shuttlers.

Ranchi’s Mustaque Ali overcame stiff resistance from Ranjan Kumar of Palamau and defeated him by 21-19, 15-21, 21-14 while Satya Prakash defeated Abhijeet Biswas of Deogarh 21-10, 14-5. An unwell Biswas conceded the match while the second set was in progress.

Ali and Prakash advanced into the men’s single second round of the tournament.

Amit Kar of Deogarh, Ravi Kesri and Rahul Kumar of Ranchi also made it to the second round. Kesri defeated Sushil Purty of West Singhbhum 21-16, 21-16 and Kar outclassed Jitendra Kachhap 21-14, 21-13. Kumar drubbed Arun Kumar of Latehar 21-5, 21-3. Kumar also made an impression by slipping into the third round of junior boy’s singles. He defeated Ashok Kumar of Palamau 21-9, 21-7.

Besides Kumar, 14 other shuttlers — Jairaj Singh, Varun Singh of Jamshedpur, Ranchi’s Chandan Nayak, Safi Akram, Kumar Pawan, Sumit Kumar Mandal, West Singhbhum’s shuttlers Vishal Raj, Chandrajit Jha, Gandhi Bari, Sachin Kumar Singh, Abhishek Bhagat (Lohardaga), Devendra Prasad Das, Pradeep Kumar of Gumla and Prakash Kumar (Bokaro) — also made it to the third round.

Heena Kumari of Godda outsmarted Dumka’s Khushboo Kumari 21-3, 21-2 in a one-sided affair. Debshruti Biswas and A. Jyotika of Jamshedpur and Shagufta Jahoor of Godda posted win in in the sub-junior girl’s single category.

The meet was inaugurated by additional commissioner of Income Tax Swetab Suman. Eighteen districts are participating in the badminton championship.