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It was a mixed day for the Indian shuttlers as Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap and Attri/Maneesha made it to the Championship match whereas P.V Sindhu, Gutta/Ponappa and H.S Prannoy faltered in the semifinals of the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold tournament being played at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
Attri and Maneesha cause major upset
In mixed doubles young Indian pair of Manu Attri and K. Maneesha caused a huge upset as they stunned the World ranked 40 Russian pair of Evgenij Dremin and Evgenia Dimova 22-24 19-21 in the semifinal match which lasted for 40 minutes.
This is not the first time that Attri and Maneesha have upstaged any seeded pair in this tournament. In second round they caused one of the major upsets as they stunned the World ranked 13 and 2nd seeds Danny Bawa and Yu Yan Neo of Singapore 23-21 21-19.
Maneesha and Attri, who are having the mixed doubles ranking of 345 and 104 respectively will now take on the top seeded and World No. 9 Indonesian pair of Riky Widianto and Puspita Richi Dili in the finals tomorrow.
Srikanth and Kashyap to battle for men’s title
It will be an all Indian men’s singles final as World No. 5 and China Open Superseries Premier winner Kidambi Srikanth and 3rd seed and World ranked 15th Parupalli Kashyap emerged victors in their respective matches.
Srikanth, who had a dream run last year defeated compatriot and World No. 18 H.S Prannoy 12-21 21-12 21-14 in an hour long match. Parupalli Kashyap got the better of his higher ranked Danish rival Viktor Axelsen in the other semifinal.
Coming from a set down, Kashyap defeated World ranked 10 Axelsen 18-21 22-20 21-7 in a match which lasted for an hour and 5 minutes.
Saina to face World Champion Marin for women’s title
In women’s singles star Indian shuttler and World No. 3 Saina Nehwal defeated 4th seed and World ranked 22 Thai shuttler Nichaon Jindapon 21-10 21-16 in the first semifinal. 20 year old Thai shuttler was absolutely no match to her higher ranked Indian opponent as she surrendered the match in just 40 minutes.
There was a bit of disappointement in the other semifinal as World No. 9 and two time World Championships bronze medalist P.V Sindhu went down to the current World Champion Spanish ace Carolina Marin. Marin thrashed Sindhu 21-13 21-13 in just 38 minutes to set up a Championship clash with defending champion Saina Nehwal.
In men’s doubles both the Indian pairs lost in the semifinals. 5th seeded pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy lost to the 4th seeds Russians Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov 21-12 21-18 whereas 6th seeds Akshay Dewalkar and Prannav Jerry Chopra lost to the top seeds and World ranked 2 Danish pair of Matthias Boe and Carsten Mogensen in a completely one sided match.
In women’s doubles category Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa, who are ranked 22nd in the world lost to the World ranked 32 Malaysian pair of Amelia Alicia and Fie Cho Soong 21-16 19-21 21-13 in a tough three game match.
