Two-time Olympic medalist India's PV Sindhu and World Championship bronze medalist Lakshya Sen advanced to the last four with quarterfinal victories of the Yonex-Sunrise India Open badminton tournament here on Friday. Top seed former world champion Sindhu defeated compatriot Ashmita Chaliha, 21, 21-7 21-18 in a match that lasted 36 minutes. Lakshya defeated HS Prannoy 14-21 21-9 21-14 to enter the men's singles semi-finals.
The 26-year-old from Hyderabad will have to face the sixth seed Supanida Katethong of Thailand in the last four to reach the final. Ketthong made it to the semi-finals after third seed Ao Jia Min of Singapore pulled out of the tournament due to 'high fever'. Third seed Lakshya will face the winner of another quarterfinal clash between Malaysia's Ng Tej Yong or Ireland's Nhat Nguyen in the last four.
In the quarterfinals of men's singles, there was a close contest between Lakshya and Prannoy. Prannoy was successful in winning the first game but young player Lakshya made the match level by winning the second game. Sindhu last played against Chaliha in the 83rd Yonex-Sunrise Senior National Championships in 2019. At that time the young player of Assam had given a strong performance.
Chaliha took a long time to find his rhythm on Friday. Though she gave a tough fight in the second game it was not enough to stop Sindhu. Sindhu used all her experience in the opening game to take an 11-5 lead. As the match progressed, the gap between the two players increased. Chaliha proved himself better in the second game and leveled 9-9. After this Sindhu took the lead 15-11, but Chaliha came back again to reduce the score to 15-15.
After this, PV Sindhu increased her aggression in her game by getting four points and came close to victory. In the second semi-final of women's singles, Akarshi Kashyap will face second seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand. The Indian registered a 21-12, 21-15 win over compatriot Malvika Bansod in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Busanan defeated America's Lauren Lam 21-12, 21-8 in the last eight. In the deciding game, Prannoy started well with a 6-1 lead but Sen made a comeback to make the score 11-9. He won the match after the break by scoring nine points out of the next 11. Men's doubles pair of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Sai Prateek K lost 7-21, 7-21 to third seeds Ong Yu Sin and Teo E Yi of Malaysia in just 19 minutes.
In mixed doubles, the Indian pair of eighth seeds Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Devangan lost 10-21, 13-21 to Malaysian pair of Chen Tang Ji and Pek An Wei in just 23 minutes. Another Indian pair of Nitin HV and Ashwini Bhatt K lost to Singapore's Hee Yong Kai Terry and Tan Wei Han 15-21, 19-21.
