Indian challenge ends

Badminton: India Open Super Series: Verma, Guru Sai Dutt bow out in quarterfinals

Giant killer Sourabh, who had beaten Athen Olympics bronze medallist Sony Kuncoro of Indonesia and seventh seed Kenichi Tago of Japan on his way to the quarterfinals, suffered a 7-21, 8-21 defeat against World number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia.
Dutt went down fighting to world number 20 Hu Yun of Hong Kong 10-21, 16-21 in a 35-minute match. Dutt had beaten fourth seed Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand and Yuhan Tan of Belgium in the first two rounds here. Sourabh’s challenge lasted for the initial six points as after that Lee just toyed with his opponent and raced away with the first game. The Beijing Olympics silver medallist was more ruthless in the second as he tired out Sourabh by making him run all across the court, playing an array of strokes to pocket the game comfortably.

Other Indian in fray, Dutt also found the going tough against world number 20 Hu and succumbed to a lot of unforced errors to crash out of the event. Hu will take on Lee in the semifinals on Saturday.

After losing the first game rather quickly, Dutt had conjured up hopes of another upset when he led 11-5 but Hu’s deft net play and smashes left the Indian gasping as the Hong Kong player first drew parity at 14-14 before finishing the game, conceding just two more points.

Among others, second seed Indonesian Taufik Hidayat was sent packing by sixth seed Korean Sung Hwan Park 17-21, 17-21 in 46 minutes to set up a clash with Peter Hoeg Gade in the semifinals. The third seed Dane beat Takuma Ueda 23-21, 21-10 in another quarterfinals of the men’s singles.

In the women’s singles, Sayaka Sato of Japan beat Jiayuan Chen 18-21, 21-15, 21-15 to set up a semifinal clash with third seed Youn Joo Bae of Korea, who defeated seventh seed Jie Yao of the Netherlands 21-13, 21-18. Fourth seed Pui Yin Yip of Hong Kong will face Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand in the last four. Pui outplayed Inthanon Ratchanok 21-17, 21-15 and Porntip got the better off Juan Gu of Singapore 21-16, 23-21.