New Delhi: PV Sindhu took another step closer to retaining her title as she reached the women’s singles semifinals in the USD 350,000 India Open Super 500 Series badminton tournament here Friday. However, the men’s challenge for the hosts ended with Parupalli Kashyap, B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma all losing their respective matches.
Sindhu dished out an attacking game to beat Spain’s World No. 36 Beatriz Corrales 21-12, 19-21, 21-11 in the 35-minute match. She will now face 2013 World Champion Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand, who beat Yip Pui Yin 21-11, 21-11 for a place in the final.
Sindhu was at her dominating best in the first game to win it easily, but Corrales came back in the second to lead 18-11. Sindhu, however, reeled off seven points to draw parity at 18-18 but a lucky net chord kept the Spaniard alive in the match.
In the third game, Sindhu once more showed her class with some telling cross-court smashes to lead 11-6 at the break. The most that Corrales could narrow the gap was to 10-15. However, Sindhu engaged her adversary in some long rallies and then easily closed out the game and with it the match.
A jump smash gave Sindhu 10 match points. Corrales won a long rally before she hit long to hand over the match to Sindhu.
The most stunning result in the women’s segment happened when Cheung Ngan of Hong Kong beat No.2 seed Carolina Marin of Spain 21-12, 21-19.
However for Kashyap, Sai Praneeth and Verma, it turned out to be a disappointing day as they suffered straight games defeats to their respective opponents.
Kashyap seemed a bit tired and could not match China’s Qiao Bin, losing 16-21, 18-21 in the men’s singles quarterfinals.
“I was struggling to continue the long rallies. May be I was tired after the last match. I had a chance in the second game but somehow I was not able to read, come forward and kill the rallies. Some part of my defence I am not happy with. I perhaps should have prepared better,” Kashyap said.
Praneeth too failed to negotiate the fast-paced game of third seed Taiwanese Chou Tien Chen and went down 15-21, 13-21. Verma also could not tackle the powerful Iskander Zulkarnain and lost 17-21, 14-21. Except for a brief period in the first game, when he led 6-4, Verma always found the going tough against the Indonesian.
In other matches, the top-seeded Indonesian combo of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo shut out India’s Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy 21-19 21-19, while sixth-seeded women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lost 17-21, 21-23 to Chinese pair of Du Yue and Li Yinhui.
Major results
PV Sindhu bt Beatriz Corrales 21-12, 19-21, 21-11
Parupalli Kashyap lost to Qiao Bin 16-21, 18-21
B Sai Praneeth lost Chou Tien Chen 15-21, 13-21
Sameer Verma lost to Iskander Zulkarnain 17-21, 14-21
Press Trust of India