Prannoy eases into final

Prannoy, who had stunned top seed Saurabh Varma 27-25, 15-21, 21-16 in a gruelling three-game quarterfinal in the morning, survived another match which went to the decider to edge out unseeded Sai Praneeth in the semifinals.

The fifth seed quelled a mid-match fightback from Praneeth to come through 21-19, 18-21, 21-14. In Tuesday’s final, Prannoy will clash with second-seeded Nanda Gopal K, who outclassed Sameer Verma in a lop-sided encounter 21-15, 21-11.  Unseeded PV Sindhu and
Neha Pandit, seeded fourth, will contest the women’s final.

While Sindhu put out fifth seed PC Thulasi 21-13, 21-16, Neha advanced with Sayali Gokhale, the number two seed, retired whilst trailing 6-17 in the opening game.

Semifinal results (prefix denotes seeding): Men’s singles: 5-Prannoy HS bt Sai Praneeth 21-19, 18-21, 21-14; 2-Nanda Gopal K bt Sameer Verma 21-15, 21-11. (Quarterfinals): S Verma bt 7-Eshan Naqvi 21-13, 23-21; N Gopal bt Prakash Jolly K 21-13, 21-16; Prannoy bt 1-Saurabh Varma 27-25, 15-21, 21-16; Praneeth bt Aditya Prakash 22-20, 21-13.

Doubles, quarterfinals: Sunjith S/Ram C Vijay bt Deepak K/Akshit Mahajan 21-13, 21-14; 3-Bennet Antony/Alwin Francis bt Mohit Kamat/Venkatesh Prasad 21-13, 21-14; 1-Akshay D/Arun Vishnu bt Pratik Patel/Aditya 21-18, 21-13; 2-Sai Praneeth B/Pranav Chopra bt T Hemanagendra Babu/Srikanth K 28-26, 22-20.

Women’s singles: Sindhu PV bt 5-Thulasi PC 21-13, 21-16; 4-Neha Pandit bt 2-Sayali Gokhale 17-6 (retd). (Quarterfinals): Thulasi bt Poorvisha S Ram 21-12, 21-8; Sindhu bt 8-Jacqueline Rose Kannath 21-17, 21-13; Sayali bt 6-Anita Ohlan 21-11, 22-20; Neha bt Daya Elsa Jacob 18-21, 21-10, 21-18.  Doubles: Thulasi PC/Sindhu PV bt 2-Pradnya Gadre/Jyotshna P 21-12, 18-21, 21-15.

Mixed doubles: 1-Arun Vis-hnu/Aparna Balan bt 4-Suraj PH/ Megha Merin Ninan 22-20, 21-15; 2-Pranav/ Prajakta Sawant bt 3-Akshay D/Pradnya Gadre 21-19, 21-17.