PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal won their respective semi-finals in contrasting fashion to set up a mouth-watering women’s singles summit showdown at the 83rd Yonex-Sunrise Senior National Championship.
Saina Nehwal
Guwahati:
Two-time former champion Sourabh Verma sealed his spot in the men’s singles final after beating Mumbai’s Kaushal Dharmamer 21-14 21-17 in 44 minutes. In the other semi-final matches of the day, Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg lived up to their reputation as the top seeds in mixed doubles. The World No. 46 pair needed only 32 minutes to dispatch Vighnesh Devlekar and V Harika 21-15 21-16.
They will take on the unseeded combination of Manu Attri and K Maneesha, who continued their rampage with a fine 21-18 21-17 victory over Shlok Ramchandran and UK Mithula. In women’s doubles, top seeds Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram continued their quest for the title with a strong 21-13 21-16 victory over Kuhoo Garg and Anoushka Parikh. They will take on the unseeded Shikha Gautam and K Ashwini Bhat in the summit clash as the pair edged Aparna Balan and KP Sruthi 21-19 24-22.
Men’s doubles second seeds Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Chirag Shetty beat Arun George and Sanyam Shukla 21-17 21-18.
In a repeat of last edition’s title clash in Nagpur, the two stalwarts will look to outdo each other. While Sindhu overcame a challenge from Assam’s promising 19-year-old Ashmita Chaliha 21-10 22-20 in the first semi-final, Saina got the better of qualifier Vaishnavi Bhale 21-15 21-14 to storm into the final. “It will be just another match. I will look to focus and give my best,” said Sindhu.
Two-time former champion Sourabh Verma sealed his spot in the men’s singles final after beating Mumbai’s Kaushal Dharmamer 21-14 21-17 in 44 minutes. In the other semi-final matches of the day, Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg lived up to their reputation as the top seeds in mixed doubles. The World No. 46 pair needed only 32 minutes to dispatch Vighnesh Devlekar and V Harika 21-15 21-16.
They will take on the unseeded combination of Manu Attri and K Maneesha, who continued their rampage with a fine 21-18 21-17 victory over Shlok Ramchandran and UK Mithula. In women’s doubles, top seeds Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram continued their quest for the title with a strong 21-13 21-16 victory over Kuhoo Garg and Anoushka Parikh. They will take on the unseeded Shikha Gautam and K Ashwini Bhat in the summit clash as the pair edged Aparna Balan and KP Sruthi 21-19 24-22.
Men’s doubles second seeds Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Chirag Shetty beat Arun George and Sanyam Shukla 21-17 21-18.