Sameer, Saina in Syed Modi badminton final; Xuerui out
LUCKNOW: Sameer Verma and Saina Nehwal marched into the men’s and women’s singles finals of the $150,000 Syed Modi International Badminton Championship, after thrilling wins here on Saturday.
Defending champion Sameer overcame lower-ranked Indonesian Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo 21-13, 17-21 and 21-8, whereas three-time champion Saina too was stretched to three games by another Indonesian Ruseli Hartawan before prevailing 12-21, 21-7, 21-6. World No 16 Sameer now plays sixth seed Lu Guangzu of China, who defeated Thai Sit- thikom Thammasin 10-21, 21-16, 21-17 in other semi-final, whereas Saina takes on China’s Han Yue, who accounted for London Olympic Games gold medallist Li Xuerui 15-21, 21-19, 9-21.
Top Indian women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also made it to the final, brushing aside fifth seed Russian pair of Ekaterina Bolotova and Alina Davletova 21-18, 21-16. Ashwini could have made it to the mixed doubles final too but she and team-mate Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost to the unseeded Chinese pair of Ou Xuanyi and Feng Xueying 12-21, 21-18, 19-21.
“Luck wasn’t with us. Despite having an edge in the decider, we couldn’t take control,” said Ashwini.
The day’s biggest surprise came in the last match of the day when eighth-seeded duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat fifth-seeded pair of Mathias Boe and Carsten Nogensen from Denmark 22-20, 25-23 to enter men’s doubles final.