Vladivostock (Russia): Indian shuttlers Sourabh Verma and Mithun Manjunath progressed to the semifinals of the men’s singles competition at the USD 75,000 Russian Open BWF Tour Super 100 badminton tournament here Friday.
Eighth seed Sourabh, who qualified for the Asian games after recovering from injuries, defeated Israel’s third seed Misha Zilberman 21-14, 21-16 in 36 minutes.
Mithun also dispatched Malaysia’s Satheishtharan Ramachandran 21-18, 21-12 in another quarterfinal. It will be an all-Indian semifinal as Mithun takes on Sourabh Saturday.
Second seeded Indian mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg also entered the semifinals after brushing aside local hopes Andrej Loginov and Liliia Abibulaeva 21-13, 21-9.
They will face Malaysian combo of Chen Tang Jie and Yen Wei Peck Saturday. The Malaysian combo had defeated third seeded Indian pair of Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh 21-15, 21-8 in under 30 minutes.
However, it was end of the road for former national champion Rituparna Das, who lost 17-21, 13-21 to USA’s Iris Wang. Vrushali Gummadi also crashed out of the tournament, losing 9-21, 11-21 to Yen Mei Ho of Malaysia.
Fifth seeded Indian Subhankar Dey also bowed out after losing 20-22, 15-21 to Russia’s second seed Vladimir Malkov in a 48-minute clash.
