Sindhu in semi-finals; Saina bows out
2 Feb 2018 10:38 PM IST
New Delhi: Top seed PV Sindhu remained in hunt to defend her title by reaching the women's singles semifinals but Saina Nehwal, the other top home shuttler, was knocked out of the India Open, in New Delhi on Friday.
Saina, who reached the finals at Indonesia Masters last week, looked a little sluggish in her movement and committed too many unforced errors to go down 10-21, 13-21 to World No 11 American Beiwen Zhang.
Olympic silver medallist Sindhu, however, recovered from a mid-game slump to outwit Spain s world no 36 Beatriz Corrales 21-12, 19-21, 21-11 in the other quarter-final.
The World Championship silver medallist will next face 2013 World champion and world no. 3 Thai Ratchanok Inthanon. Mixed doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra, who had reached the semifinals at Japan Open last year, entered the final four again here after beating Chinese combo of Han Chengkai and Cao Tong Wei 21-8 21-13. "We are not as physically strong as Asians, so after coach Kim Tan Her joined, he told us we are not supposed to play the Asian style of game and rather should focus on playing the European style of play and it has helped us, said Pranaav after the match.
The eighth seeded Indian duo will face fifth seeded Danish combo of Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen, who beat Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa 21-17, 21-11 in another match. Meanwhile, it turned out to be a disappointing day for Indian men's singles players as Parupalli Kashyap, B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma suffered straight game losses to their respective opponents to bow out of the tournament.
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