Anaheim (US): Shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and HS Prannoy entered the semifinals of the men’s singles while Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy advanced to the last four stage of the men’s doubles at the US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here, Friday.
On a comeback trail, Kashyap reached his first semifinals of an international event in seven months after defeating compatriot Sameer Verma 21-13, 21-16 in 40 minutes to set up a last four clash with Korea’s Kwang Hee Heo.
For Prannoy, it was the second semifinal appearance of the season after his last four finish at the Indonesia Super Series Premier last month. The second-seeded Prannoy saw off Japanese Kanta Tsuneyama in a three-setter – 10-21, 21-15 21-18 – in another men’s singles match that lasted exactly an hour at the Anaheim Convention Centre Arena.
Prannoy will next take on 15th seed Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam, who had beaten the Indian at the 2012 Badminton Asia Championships in their only meeting so far.
In men’s doubles, third seeds Manu and Sumeeth defeated Japanese duo Hiroki Okamura and Masayuki Onodera 21-18, 22-20 in a keenly-contested men’s doubles. The duo will face the top seeds Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han of Chinese Taipei in their last four tie.
Russian disaster
However, it was a bad day in the office for the Indian shuttlers at the Russian Open Grand Prix. Their campaign came to an end after Rahul Yadav Chittaboina and the men’s doubles pair of Arjun MR and Ramchandran Shlok suffered defeats in their respective semifinals, in Vladivostok, Saturday.
The 19-year-old Rahul fought hard before going down 11-5, 10-12, 11-7, 6-11, 8-11 to second seed Russian Vladimir Malkov in a 49-minute match.
On the other hand, the fourth seeds Arjun and Ramchandran lost tamely 3-11, 2-11, 4-11 to the top seeds Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov, who had won the 2016 All England Super Series Premier.
