April 27, 2013
NEW DELHI: It was a heart-warming show by the home shuttlers even though only two of the seven players in the fray — PV Sindhu and Anand Pawar — managed to reach the semifinals of the India Open Super Series badminton tournament on Friday.
April 27, 2013
NEW DELHI: It was a heart-warming show by the home shuttlers even though only two of the seven players in the fray — PV Sindhu and Anand Pawar — managed to reach the semifinals of the India Open Super Series badminton tournament on Friday.
Sindhu's win over Hashimoto, who had beaten Saina Nehwal, put the Andhra girl in her maiden semifinal in the India Open
Sindhu was, as always, clinical. But for a small period in the first game, the world No.15 gave an almost flawless display to beat Yui Hashimoto 21-16, 21-16 in her quarterfinal at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here.
The win over the Japanese, who had beaten Saina Nehwal on Thursday, put the Andhra girl in her maiden semifinal in the India Open and second in a Super Series event.
Starting on a confident note, Sindhu raced to a 19-7 lead in no time before her rival made a strong comeback, taking the Indian by surprise. The counterattack was such that it forced Sindhu to make many errors, the only time in the match when she looked in trouble.
Hashimoto threatened to take the game away but she failed to get past the net following a long rally which stopped her run at 19-16. The point earned some relief as Sindhu quickly finished off the game. It was business as usual for the Indian after that as she won the second game easily. She will next play third seed Ratchanok Intanon.
"In the first game, I was not over-confident but felt that I could win since I had taken a big lead. But then she came back. I was not tense as I knew it was about winning just a point," Sindhu said after the match. "You had to be really patient as there were a lot of rallies. She made some mistakes during those rallies."
Anand Pawar, pitted against compatriot Ajay Jayaram, coasted through 21-6, 21-16. His semifinal rival will be Kenichi Tago.
The other home challengers showed a lot of pluck to stretch their more fancied rivals before bowing out. Their performance even drew praise from none other than world No.1 Lee Chong Wei.
Arundhati Pantawane gave a fright to third seed Ratchanok Intanon in the day's first quarterfinal. She took the first game comfortably before the Indonesian used her experience to bounce back and win 14-21, 21-7, 21-16.
RMV Gurusaidutt too fought bravely and took a game from seventh seed Boonsak Ponsana before losing 21-12, 11-21, 21-12. B Sai Praneeth too had his rival, sixth seed Kenichi Tago, in trouble before the Japanese won 21-17, 19-21, 21-11.
The toughest assignment of the day, though, was for qualifier HS Pranoy who was up against Wei. The young Indian enthralled the galleries as he took a 18-12 in the first game against his famed opponent.
However, the Malaysian ace bounced back to win the game and then the match. "This is the best tournament for me having played Taufik Hidayat and Lee Chong Wei back to back. But I could have played much better today.
It's tough to play guys like Wei, especially for the first time."
Courtesy: PTI
