Sweet revenge for PV Sindhu, Malvika Bansod; Anupama Upadhyaya, Mithun storm into Syed Modi semis

PV Sindhu and Malvika Bansod stormed into the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships semifinals at the Babu Banarasi Das Stadium in Lucknow on Friday and took sweet revenge for recent losses in the process.

Both PV Sindhu and Malvika Bansod avenged their respective defeats at last week's Indian Open in their respective quarter-final games.

Top seed Sindhu rallied back splendidly to ground Supanida Katethong of Thailand 11-21, 21-12, 21-17 in an exciting quarterfinal that lasted 65 minutes. Sindhu had lost to the Thai player in the Indian Open semis last Saturday in New Delhi.

World No. 7 Sindhu has now taken less than a week to settle scores against the sixth seed.

Top seed PV Sindhu beat sixth seed Supanida Katethong of Thailand 11-21, 21-12, 21-17. (Picture: BAI)

Sindhu displays tremendous character to bounce back after losing first game

For the second time in a week, Sindhu was in a spot of bother against the Thai shuttler.

World No. 30 Supanida was riding on confidence after beating two-time Olympic medalist Sindhu in their meeting at the Indian Open. She continued from where she left off in Delhi by bagging the first game quite easily on Friday.

However, Sindhu did not panic and displayed tremendous character to ground her high-flying opponent.

26-year-old Sindhu claimed the second game 21-12 to force a decider. Both Sindhu and Supanida fought hard for each point in the deciding game before Sindhu cut loose midway through the decider to seal the fate of her opponent.

Sindhu will now take on fifth seed Evgeniya Kosetskaya of Russia for a spot in the final on Saturday.

Former world champion Sindhu will have the psychological advantage over Evgeniya as she has beaten world No. 28 Russian star in both earlier encounters.

Malvika Bansod avenges Aakarshi Kashyap’s India Open defeat

Malvika Bansod also followed in the footsteps of her senior to exact revenge. Malvika was shown the exit door by Aakarshi in the Indian Open quarterfinals. Chhattisgarh girl Aakarshi recorded a facile 21-12, 21-15 win over Malvika to reach the semis of the Indian Open, exactly a week ago.

However, Malvika was on fire on Friday and demolished her traditional rival 21-11, 21-11 in 42 minutes.

Although Malvika and Aakarshi only played twice on the international circuit, they have faced each other on several occasions in the domestic sub-junior, junior and senior tournaments.

Proving a point or two to her detractors, Malvika seemed determined to avenge last week's defeat. The Nagpur shuttler was off to a flying start as she raced to a massive 11-4 lead in the first game. After the break, southpaw Malvika continued her ruthless run to grab the opener quite easily at 11.

India No. 2 Malvika, repeated the same act in the second game too. World No. 84 Malvika did not allow Aakarshi to make a comeback with her outstanding display of power and precision.

Aakarshi, who has the best world ranking among Indians after Sindhu and Saina Nehwal at 59, tried hard to arrest the slide initially in the second game.

But she could not stop the rampaging Malvika, who probably played one of her best matches in recent times to reach her first World Tour Super 300 semifinals.

Malvika to face Anupama Upadhyaya in semis

Malvika will square off against Anupama Upadhyaya for a spot in Sunday's summit clash. So far, Malvika and Anupama have faced each other thrice at the international level.

Malvika is leading 2-1 head-to-head but Anuapama had won their previous encounter.

Anupapa surprised Malvika at the Infosys Foundation India International Challenge in Bengaluru in October 2021.The upcoming shuttler from Haryana went on to win her maiden international title in Bengaluru late last year.

It will be an interesting battle between Malvika and 17-year-old Anupama on Saturday.

In a battle between the two teenagers, Anupama edged out Samiya Imad Farooqui 24-22, 23-21 in a nail-biting quarterfinal.

World No. 127 Anupama needed to dig deep to get the better of Hyderabad's 18-year-old Samiya in a match that lasted 46 minutes.

Mithun lone survivor in men’s singles after Prannoy defeat

Mithun Manjunath remained the only Indian challenger in the men’s singles category. He rallied back brilliantly to upset Sergey Sirant of Russia 11-21, 21-12, 21-18 in a marathon 61-minute battle.

Mithun, who won the BAI All India Senior Rankings tournament in Hyderabad a couple of weeks ago, will lock horns with Arnaud Merkle of France.

The Frenchman shocked fifth seed HS Prannoy 21-19, 21-16 in an hour-long battle.

Indian Results (Quarterfinals)

Men’s singles

Mithun Manjunath bt Sergey Sirant (Russia) 11-21, 21-12, 21-18 (61 minutes)

5-HS Prannoy lost to Arnaud Merkle (France) 19-21, 16-21 (59 minutes)

Women’s singles

1-PV Sindhu bt 6-Supanida Katethong (Thailand) 11-21, 21-12, 21-17 (65 minutes)

Malvika Bansod bt Aakarshi Kashyap 21-11, 21-11 (42 minutes)

Anupama Upadhyaya bt Samiya Imad Farooqui 24-22, 23-21 (46 minutes)

Men’s doubles

6-Krishna Prasad G-Vishnuvardhan Goud P bt Ishaan Bhatnagar-Sai Pratheek K 21-17 21-18 (33 minutes)

4-MR Arjun-Dhruv Kapila bt 7-Fabien Delrue-William Villeger (France) 21-16, 19-21, 21-19 (62 minutes)

Prem Singh Chouhan-Rajesh Verma bt Astitva Kale-Aniruddha Mayekar 21-17, 21-13 (24 minutes)

Women’s doubles

Ramya Venkatesh C-Apeksha Nayak gave walkover to 8-Anna Ching Yik Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing (Malaysia)

7-Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand Pullela bt 2-Anastasiia Akchurina-Olga Morozova (Russia) 24-22, 21-10 (47 minutes)

Haritha MH-Ashna Roy bt Tanishka Deshpande-Shruti Mundada 13-21, 26-24, 21-11 (57 minutes)

Mixed doubles

7-Ishaan Bhatnagar-Tanisha Crasto bt Ashith Surya-Pranjal Prabhu Chimulkar 21-13, 21-19 (31 minutes)

Akshan Shetty-Simran Singhi bt Balkeshari Yadav-Swetaparna Panda 21-15, 22-20 (34 minutes)

MR Arjun-Treesa Jolly bt 8-William Villeger-Anne Tran (France) 24-22, 21-17 (42 minutes)

T Hema Nagendra Babu-Srivedya Gurazada gets a walkover from 2-Chen Tang Jie-Peck Yen Wei (Malaysia).

Semifinal line-up

Men’s singles

Mithun Manjunath vs Arnaud Merkle (France)

Women’s singles

1-PV Sindhu vs 5-Evgeniya Kosetskaya (Russia)

Malvika Bansod vs Anupama Upadhyaya

Men’s doubles

6-Krishna Prasad G-Vishnuvardhan Goud P vs Prem Singh Chouhan-Rajesh Verma

4-MR Arjun-Dhruv Kapila vs 8-Man Wei Chong-Kai Wun Tee (Malaysia)

Women’s doubles

7-Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand Pullela vs Low Yeen Yuan-Valeree Siow (Malaysia)

Haritha MH-Ashna Roy vs 8-Anna Ching Yik Cheong-Teoh Mei Xing (Malaysia)

Mixed doubles

7-Ishaan Bhatnagar-Tanisha Crasto vs MR Arjun-Treesa Jolly

Akshan Shetty-Simran Singhi vs T Hema Nagendra Babu-Srivedya Gurazada.