Lucknow: Olympic women’s singles silver medalist P.V. Sindhu of India secured a final berth at the 2017 Syed Modi International Championships by beating No. 4 seed Fitriani Fitriani of Indonesia 21-11, 21-19 in a 38-minute encounter on Saturday.
The No. 1 seed Sindhu will take on another Indonesian Gregoria Mariska in the final. Mariska pulled off an upset to beat her compatriot and No. 6 seed Hanna Ramadini 21-19, 21-14 in another women’s singles semi-final.
In men’s singles, defending champion Kidambi Srikanth was outlasted by last year’s Canada Open Grand Prix winner Sai Praneeth of India 21-15, 10-21, 17-21 in 59 minutes. The No. 9 seed Praneeth will clash with No. 8 seed Sameer Verma of India in the final.
Although Women’s doubles No. 3 seeds Lim Yin Loo/Yap Cheng Wen of Malaysia put up a valiant fight against top seeds Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl, however, the Malaysian pair was not good enough to win the match by losing to the Danes 21-23, 14-21.
Pedersen/Juhl are set to take on unseeded Ashwini Ponnappa/Reddy N. Sikki of India who fought past their compatriots Sanjana Santosh and Arathi Sara Sunil 18-21, 21-12, 21-13 in 47 minutes.
Meanwhile, men’s doubles No. 1 seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen showed great resilience to fight from back from a set down to beat No. 4 seeds Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia 11-21, 21-17, 21-19 in an enthralling semi-final to meet No. 8 seeds Lu Ching Yao/Yang Po Han of Taiwan on Sunday.
Playing only their second tournament together, No. 7 seeds Reddy B. Sumeeth/Ashwini Ponnappa shocked London Olympics bronze medalists and top seeds Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen of Denmark 19-21, 21-18, 21-18 to set up an all Indian mixed doubles final with Pranaav Jerry Chopra/Reddy N. Sikki next.
