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Indian shuttler Harsheel Dani’s gallant run came to an end at the Czech Open 2018 as he was shown the door by Toma Junior Popov in the semi-finals of this International Challenge tournament at Brno, Czech Republic on Saturday. Dani, a qualifier at this event, went down 20-22, 14-21 to the World No. 81 in 36 minutes.
The World No. 221 Indian had been on a giant-killing run this week. He started his main draw campaign with a 21-10, 17-21, 21-19 win over the eighth seed Lucas Claerbout. It was then followed with a gutsy 19-21, 21-14, 21-18 comeback win over Emre Lale of Turkey.
Dani then caused one of the biggest upsets of the tournament when he ousted the second seed Pablo Abian 22-20, 21-14, before seeing his own run ending a round later.
Fourth seed Subhankar Dey and unseeded Mithun Manjunath made it to the quarter-finals. While Dey lost to Popov 20-22, 15-21, Manjunath crashed out to fifth seed Thomas Rouxel 14-21, 21-18, 13-21.
Das goes down in quarter-finals
Earlier in the day, Rituparna Das’s challenge too ended in the quarter-finals. The former India national women’s singles champion has been in good form of late as she aims to climb her way back to the higher echelons of the sport following a bout of injuries.
The Haldia-born Das, a trainee at the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad, won the Polish International last week and was on a seven-match winning streak coming into the quarter-finals of the Czech Open. At this tournament, she had begun her campaign with a thrilling 21-13, 18-21, 22-20 win over the third seed Chloe Birch.
Das continued showing her fighting spirit when she eked out yet another tight 20-22, 21-14, 21-16 win over Vivien Sandorhazi. However, she could not keep it going in her third consecutive three-game match of the tournament as she was edged 21-16, 19-21, 16-21 by Lin Ying Chun.
