Nagpur: The Petroleum Sports Promotion Board and Madhya Pradesh will contest the final of the senior inter-state mixed-team championships on Sunday after winning their respective semi-finals on Saturday in Nagpur.

PSPB and MP both lost just one rubber, winning the remaining three in the best-of-five clash against Maharashtra and Manipur respectively.

In the first semi-final, PSPB broke the successful mixed doubles pairing of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy, choosing instead to go with Manu Attri. However, the pair had no trouble dispatching Maharashtra’s Akshay Dewalkar and Sanjana Santosh 21-16, 21-14 in 26 minutes.

Kaushal Dharmamer pulled one back for Maharashtra as he beat RMV Gurusaidutt 21-14, 20-22, 21-11 in 52 minutes. However, Ruthvika Shivani Gadde was ruthless as she beat Neha Pandit 21-12, 21-15 to retake the lead for PSPB.

The men’s doubles pair of Chopra and Manu Attri then sealed the tie, confirming progress to the final for PSPB after beating Maharashtra’s Dewalkar and Prasad Shetty 21-13, 21-9 in 24 minutes.

In the second semi-final tie, the first rubber between Manipur and Madhya Pradesh was a tense affair as both mixed doubles pairings went neck-and-neck. Manipur’s Dingku Singh Konthoujam and N Purnima Devi won the first game 21-19, before MP’s Shubham Prajapati and Khushboo Patel bagged the second by a similar scoreline. The decider went to the MP pair 21-16, giving the team a 1-0 lead.

Prajapati did not get a break as he took the court against Maisnam Meiraba for the men’s singles. Prajapati looked tired and lost the first game rather easily, 21-12, before finding some energy and taking the second 22-20. The deciding game was a tight affair, as Meiraba’s fresher legs eventually got him over the line 21-18 to tie the score 1-1.

Manipur’s Angita Naorem then spent a torturous 17 minutes on court as Shriyanshi Pardeshi thrashed her 21-4, 21-5 to give MP a 2-1 lead in the tie. MP’s men’s doubles pair of Alap Mishra and Abhimanyu Singh then wrapped up the tie with a 21-16, 21- win over Manjit Singh Khwairakpam and Dingku Sing Konthoujam.

Quarter-finals

Earlier, in the quarter-finals, PSPB were the only team to win their first three matches in the best-of-five tie, beating Andhra Pradesh in mixed doubles, men’s singles and women’s singles. Japan Open Superseries semi-finalists Chopra and Reddy were too good for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and P Sonika Sai, beating them 21-16, 21-12.

Singapore Open Superseries champion B Sai Praneeth was given a scare by 15-year-old Sai Charan Koya, before winning 20-22, 21-9, 21-17. Ruthvika Shivani Gadde then beat Tanishq M 21-10, 21-16.

Maharashtra battled it out with Uttar Pradesh, with the tie needing all five matches to be played. Maharashtra looked to be coasting along, taking a 2-0 lead, before UP fought back to make it 2-2. Maharashtra won the women’s doubles encounter to seal their progress.

Madhya Pradesh versus Airports Authority of India also went into five matches, with Pardeshi being the star of the show. The second-ranked Indian senior won her women’s singles encounter against the country’s top-ranked junior Aakarshi Kashyap 21-17, 22-20, before partnering with Khushboo Patel to win the women’s doubles against Mahima Aggarwal and Karishma Wadkar 21-15, 21-13.

Manipur lost one match against Haryana before progressing 3-1.