India’s fourth seed Saina Nehwal in ladies’s singles and eighth-seeded ladies’s doubles pair Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy progressed to the semi-finals of the Orleans Masters Super 100 badminton match on Friday.
Saina edged previous Iris Wang of the USA 21-19, 17-21, 21-19 in 60 minutes within the quarter-final match. The Indian shuttler will now lock horns with unseeded Line Christophersen of Denmark within the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Ashwini and Sikki beat England’s third seeds Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith 21-14, 21-18 42 minutes within the quarter-finals. They will now face Thai prime seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai within the semi-finals on Saturday.
In combined doubles quarter-finals, India’s new pair Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponnappa beat England’s Max Flynn and Jessica Pugh 21-13, 21-18 in a mere 29 minutes to enter the semi-finals.
However, India’s Kidambi Srikanth misplaced to France’s Toma Junior Popov 19-21, 17-21 in a males’s singles quarter-final match in 42 minutes and crashed out.
In ladies’s singles quarter-finals, India’s Ira Sharma misplaced to Denmark’s Line 11-21, 8-21 in 23 minutes. The Dane will conflict with one other Indian within the semi-finals, Saina.
Ashwini and Sikki raced to a 4-0 lead within the first sport earlier than their opponents scored 4 consecutive factors to stage the scores. The two groups then went toe-to-toe till the rating was eighth-all, after which Ashwini and Sikki received 4 consecutive factors to guide 12-8. There was no turning again for the Indians after that as they maintained their dominance and took the sport 21-14.
The second sport was a far nearer affair with the rating on the interval studying 11-9 within the Indians’ favour. Ashwini and Sikki received one other level after the restart after which Birch and Smith received three consecutive factors to make it 12-12. The two groups exchanged factors after that till Ashwini and Sikki managed to take a two-point lead at 17-15. They maintained that place, and ultimately took the second sport 21-18.
The different Indian pair, Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnu Vardhan Goud Panjala, beat France’s Christo Popov and Toma Junior Popov 21-17, 10-21, 22-20 in an hour and three minutes.
In the semi-finals, they now face England’s Callum Hemming and Steve Stallwood, who beat Indian seventh seeds M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila within the quarter-finals on Friday.
(With IANS inputs)
