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National badminton: Sindhu enters final, Saina, Kashyap in semifinals

National badminton: PV Sindhu enters final while Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap barge into semifinals

PV Sindhu reached the final of the National badminton

Guwahati, February 15: Top seed PV Sindhu staved off a gutsy fightback from Assam's Ashmita Chaliha to enter the final of the 83rd Senior National Badminton Championships 2018-19, here on Friday (February 15). 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.

Earlier, defending champion Saina Nehwal and former winners Parupalli Kashyap and Sourabh Verma all stormed into semifinals.

The second-seeded Nehwal was hardly ever tested in her 21-10, 21-10 victory over Maharashtra's veteran shuttler Neha Pandit and needed just 24 minutes to complete the match. In her quest to add a fourth title to her 2006, 2007 and 2018 triumphs, the former World No. 1 next meets rising star Vaishnavi Bhale of Nagpur.

Nehwal's husband, Kashyap, the men's singles third seed and 2012 winner, too was equally impressive in his 21-18, 21-16 win over 21-year-old Bodhit Joshi. Awaiting the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the semi-finals is Asian junior champion Lakshya Sen, who was the runner-up at the Nationals in 2017.

But the star of the morning session on Day 4 of the Senior Nationals was former two-time champion, Sourabh Verma. Unseeded this time, the 26-year-old dropped a game but managed to dig deep to knock out the second seed and 2014 champion Sai Praneeth in an absorbing clash.

Verma fought his way back from 14-17 down in the decider to get the win in 1 hour 2 minutes. After dealing with a series of injuries, Verma had announced his return to form last year when he clinched titles at the Russian Open and the Dutch Open.

The PSPB player, winner in 2011 and 2017, will next lock horns with Mumbai shuttler Kaushal Dharmamer as he aims to clinch the Nationals for the third time.

Saina, Kashyap and Sai Praneeth had begun their campaign in the evening session on Thursday while the rest of the Round of 16 matches had been completed earlier in the day. Thus on the conclusion of their quarter-final matches on Friday morning, the semi-final action got underway.

Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg lived up to their reputation as the top seeds in mixed doubles. World No. 46 pair needed only 32 minutes to dispatch Vighnesh Devlekar and Harika V 21-15, 21-16 to enter the final.

They will take on the unseeded combine of Manu Attri and Maneesha K, who continued their rampage with a fine 21-18, 21-17 win over Shlok Ramchandran and Mithula UK.

Story first published: Friday, February 15, 2019, 18:55 [IST]
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