Sindhu in Sr nationals final; Saina, Kashyap enter semis
GUWAHATI: Top seed PV Sindhu staved off a gutsy fightback from Assam’s wonderkid Ashmita Chaliha to enter the final at the Yonex-sunrise 83rd Senior National Badminton Championships 2018-19, here on Friday. The two-time champion had to claw her way back from 16-19 down in the second game and needed two match points to douse the challenge of the spirited fourth seed Chaliha 21-10, 22-20.
Saina Nehwal, Parupalli Kashyap and Sourabh Verma advanced to the semi-finals on Friday.
Defending champion Saina hardly broke a sweat to get the better of former India number one Neha Pandit of Mumbai 21-10 21-10 in a lopsided quarter-final contest.
The two-time Commonwealth Games champion will face 22-year-old Nagpur qualifier Vaishnavi Bhale, who was part of India’s Uber Cup squad last year, later in the evening.
Kashyap, a 2012 winner, prevailed 21-18 21-16 over Bodhit Joshi, who had reached the finals of Iceland International last year. The former world no 6 from Hyderabad will face Lakshya Sen in the semi-finals later in the day.
Both Saina and Kashyap had played their pre-quarterfinal match on Thursday night at the newly-laid wooden court at the TRP indoor stadium after refusing to play at the Assam Badminton Academy courts due to “uneven” surface.
Earlier, former World No 30 Sourabh, who had clinched Super 100 titles at Russia Open and Dutch Open last year, eked out a hard-fought 21-11 21-23 21-18 triumph over B Sai Praneeth. Sourabh grabbed seven straight points from 14-17 down in the decider against former Singapore Open champion Sai Praneeth in the quarter-finals.