India’s two remaining singles players both crashed out of the Australian Open Super 300 badminton tournament in Sydney after losing their quarter-finals in straight games on Friday.
This means that India’s only representatives in the semi-finals will be men’s doubles pair Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, who edged past compatriots Arjun MR and Shlok Ramchandran in three games.
Second seed Sai Praneeth was up against seventh seed Lee Cheuk Yiu, who had knocked out Lakshya Sen in the first round. It was a tight first game, which Lee eventually won 23-21, and more of the same continued in the second game, as Sai Praneeth took a slender 11-10 lead into the interval.
However, that is when the match turned as Lee won seven points in a row to take a 17-10 lead and Sai Praneeth was never able to recover from that, as he lost 21-23, 13-21. Sai looked exhausted towards the end of that second game.
Earlier, Sameer Verma was upset by world No 165 Lu Guangzu of China, who won 21-14, 21-6. The contest was on until 15-14 to the Chinese in the first game, after which he won six straight points to take the first game. In the second game, Verma gave up even earlier, as Lu went from a 5-3 lead to 15-3, winning 10 straight points.
In the men’s doubles, it seemed as if Arjun and Shlok would get a win against their seniors Manu and Sumeeth, but the more experienced pair fought back to win 17-21, 21-19, 21-18. Third seeds Manu and Sumeeth will take on top seeds Berry Angriawan and Hardianto Hardianto of Indonesia in the semi-finals.
