Badminton: Saina, Sindhu and Srikanth through to Syed Modi semifinals

Lucknow: Defending champion Saina Nehwal inched closer to retaining her women’s singles title, while other top Indian shuttlers, including P V Sindhu, also made it to the semifinals of the USD 120,000 Syed Modi International Badminton tournament, here today. Top male badminton stars – K Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap – also entered the last four stage of the tournament by winning their respective matches today. [caption id=“attachment_2062699” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Saina Nehwal. Getty[/caption] Olympic bronze medallist Saina defeated compatriot Arundhati Pantawane 21-18 21-17 at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium. The top seed will next take on fourth seed Nichaon Jindapon of Thailand, who beat India’s P C Thulasi 21-16 20-22 21-12 in another match that lasted one hour and six minutes. Two-time World Championship bronze medallist, Sindhu too notched up a hard-fought victory over sixth seed Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand 8-21 21-11 21-14 to reach the final four. She will meet reigning World Champion Carolina Marin of Spain. World No. 5 Srikanth also continued his run and entered the semis after Malaysian fifth seed Wei Feng Chong retired after the second game with the score reading 17-21 21-12. The China Open winner will next take on compatriot H S Prannoy, who clinched the Indonesia Masters last year. The fourth seed saw off another Indian R M V Gurusaidutt, seeded eighth, 21-18 21-19 in his quarterfinal match. Third seed Kashyap who had won the men’s singles title in 2012, defeated Singapore’s Zi Liang Derek Wong, seeded 10th 21-18 21-9 in just over half an hour. In doubles, mixed doubles pair of Manu Attri and K Maneesha prevailed over Malaysian seventh seeds Aik Quan Tan and Meng Yean Lee 23-21 10-21 21-10 in a 51-minute battle. However, other Indian pairs of V Gangadhara Rao and D Sudha Kalyani (mixed doubles), Sanyogita Ghorpade and Arathi Sara Sunil (women’s doubles), and K Nandagopal and Arjun Kumar Reddy Malgari (men’s doubles), Arun George and T Hema Nagendra Babu (men’s doubles) failed to reached the semis. In another men’s singles quarterfinals, B Sai Parneet lost to second seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark 21-15 17-21 16-21 in a contest which last just over an hour. In women’s doubles, top Indian pair and second seeds Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa stormed into the semifinals after thrashing their compatriots Jamuna Rani Rachapalli and Leela Lakshmi Rachapalli 21-6 21-5 in just 20 minutes. Gutta and Ponnappa take on Malaysian four seeds Amelia Alicia Anscelly and Fie Cho Soong in the semifinals tomorrow. PTI