German Junior 2018: Krishna Prasad Garaga and Dhruv Kapila lose in semi-finals, Indian challenge ends

The sizzling run of the rising Indian men’s doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Dhruv Kapila came to an end in the semi-finals of the Yonex German Junior 2018 held at the Sportarena in Berlin, Germany on Saturday. The pair, seeded second at this Junior International Grand Prix tournament, went down 24-26, 16-21 to the fourth seeded Chinese combine of Di Zijian and Guo Xinwa in a hard-fought last-four clash that lasted 41 minutes.

With their loss, the Indian challenge came to an end at this prestigious junior event.

Garaga and Kapila were the only Indians to make it to the semi-finals at the German Junior. The in-form pair had finished as the runners-up at the Dutch Junior last week and was looking to go one better in Berlin.

Despite their failure to do so, their semi-final finish was an improvement from last year, where they had succumbed to a second round defeat as the top seeds.

Garaga and Kapila did not have it easy this week. They dropped a game in each of their three rounds before the semi-finals.

Indian pair upset men's doubles top seeds

Other than Kapila and Garaga, Vishnu Vardhan Goud Panjala and Srikrishna Sai Kumar Podile stood out with their second round upset of the top seeds Christopher Grimley and Matthew Grimley. The Indians stunned the Scottish combine 21-17, 15-21, 23-21 before losing in the next round.

In men’s singles, two Indians reached the fourth round. Rahul Bharadwaj upset the sixth seed Arnaud Merkle 21-14, 21-9 in the third round. Alap Mishra too accounted for the 10th seeded Cristian Savin 21-17, 17-21, 21-13 in the same round.

In women’s singles, both the 11th seeded Purva Barve and the 12th seeded Aakarshi Kashyap lost in the third round. The 11th seeded mixed doubles pair of Garaga and Mithula UK was outclassed by the top seeds Yee Jun Chang and Pearly Koong Le Tan in the third round.