Lucknow: National champion Sameer Verma and Mumbai’s Harsheel Dani shocked Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and Emil Holst, respectively, to reach the men’s singles semifinals at the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here Friday.
Eighth seed Sameer stunned second seed Vittinghus 21-15, 21-13 in a 35-minute clash while 15th seed Harsheel, who started proceedings on the day, dumped 12th seed Denmar’s Holst 21-16, 17-21, 21-11 in a thrilling contest at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium here. A former under-19 champion, Harsheel will face Sameer, Saturday.
Top seed PV Sindhu expectedly brushed aside Vaidehi Choudhari 21-15, 21-11 in another lop-sided contest, while defending champion Kidambi Srikanth boosted his confidence with a fluent 21-12, 21-17 win over Malaysia’s seventh seed Zulfadli Zulkiffli.
While Sindhu will face Indonesia’s fourth seed Fitriani Fitriani, who edged out Rituparna Das 21-17, 13-21, 23-21 in a hard-fought battle. Srikanth will meet compatriot B Sai Praneeth, seeded ninth and who prevailed 21-19, 12-21, 21-10 over compatriot Sourabh Varma in another match.
In men’s doubles, second seeds Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy beat the eighth seeded Malaysian-Indian pair of Yogendran Khrishnan and Prajakta Sawant 21-16, 21-19 and will face another Danish pair of Mathias Christiansen and Sara Thygesen.
In women’s doubles,newly-formed pair of Sikki and Ashwini Ponnappa stunned second seeds Malaysian Mei Kuan Chow and Lee Meng Yean 21-14, 21-18 to enter the semis. Sanjana Santosh and Arathi Sara Sunil notched up a 12-21, 21-12, 21-9 win over fourth seeds Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram to also qualify for the last four stage.
Press Trust of India
