New Delhi: Home challenge at the Yonex Sunrise India Open came to an end as last surviving Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Anand Pawar were knocked out of the men’s and women’s singles semifinals competition respectively here today at the DDA Badminton Stadium today.
The battle of the young guns involving Sindhu and Ratchanok Intanon which promised to be a high intensity affair failed to live up to the expectations as Sindhu bowed out in a rather tame fashion.
Both the players playing in their India Open semifinals started off well and were engaged in a fair fight, but the world No. 6 Thai eventually caught the match by the scruff of its neck and won 21-12, 21-6 in just 31 minutes.
In other semifinals from the women’s competition world No.4 Juliane Schenk of Germany beat Aprilla Yuswandari of Indonesia 21-18, 21-12 in 37 minutes to set up a summit clash against Ratchanok.
In the men’s singles semifinals veteran Anand Pawar dream run was cut short by Kenichi Tago of Japan. Pawar appearing in his first ever Super Series last four round started off well put up a valiant effort, but could not overcome the world No. 9. He lost 16-21,11-21 in 55 minutes.
Tago will now face world No.1 and 2011 winner Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia who beat Boonsak Ponsana of Indonesia 21-11, 18-21, 21-8.
Other results:
Mixed doubles:
Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir (INA) bt Robert Mateusik/Nadeiza Zeiba (POL) 21-5, 21-10
Ko Sung Hyun/Kim Ha Na (KOR) bt (ENG) Chris Adcock/Gabrielle White 21-14, 12-21, 21-17
Women’s doubles:
Miyuki Maeda/Satoko Suetsuna (JPN) bt (JPN) Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi 21-16, 21-14 41 Christinna Pedersen/Kamilla Rytter Juhl (DEN) bt (KOR) Jang Ye Na/So Young Kim 21-18 21-12 37
Men’s doubles:
Ko Sung Hyun/Lee Yong Dae (KOR)bt(KOR) Kim Ki Jung/Kim Sa Rang 21-11 21-13 28
Liu Xiaolong/Qiu Zihan (CHN) bt(INA) Angga Pratama/Ryan Agung Saputra 22-20 21-19 40