Sindhu fights her way past Thulasi

Pawar through to mens semifinals as seeds scatter on day three

Seedings and reputations went for a toss on a dramatic third day’s play with the women’s top seed PC Thulasi among a clutch of top shuttlers bowing out of the IFCI 76th Senior National badminton championships on Monday.

Defending men’s champion Arvind Bhat, fifth seed Pratul Joshi, 12th seed RMV Guru Sai Dutt, third seed Mohit Kamat and women’s fifth seed Dhanya Nair fell by the wayside in the pre-quarterfinal and quarterfinal stages of the championships at the KBA courts.

Thulasi couldn’t match the guile of promising youngster Sindhu P V, going down 21-19, 11-21, 12-21 in an exciting quarterfinal encounter that lasted 79 minutes. “We train together at the Gopichand Academy every day, so we know each other’s game very well. I was indecisive in the first game and that’s the main reason I lost the game,” said Sindhu.

 Soon after, unseeded Anand Pawar pulled off an upset, ending the challenge of PSPB’s Guru Sai Dutt with a hard-fought 13-21, 21-12, 21-16 verdict in the quarterfinals. Pawar, who had beaten the sixth seed Bhat 21-9, 21-19 in the pre-quarterfinals earlier in the day, will take on Sai Praneeth of PSPB in the semifinals. The other semifinal will be an all-PSPB affair between Sourabh Verma and H S Prannoy.

In the Thulasi-Sindhu match, the former started off well and led 13-7 in the first game. Knowing her opponent’s style of play very well, Thulasi, from then on, consistently targeted the backcourt, not allowing Sindhu any room to unleash her smashes. The ploy worked for the 20-year-old, who gradually reduced the margin before levelling the scores at 14-all as her rival struggled to find a way out. Thulasi continued her good work to pocket the first game 21-19 in 22 minutes.

Sindhu went for the shots early on in the second game and cruised to a 14-8 lead. The PSPB shuttler used her height to good effect, and her training partner could not read the smashes that came from a steep angle. At 17-10, Sindhu played a peach of a point, retrieving a drop at full stretch to produce a winner that left Thulasi stranded. Sindhu came back on level terms with a backhand drop.

Sindhu was a picture of confidence in the decider and went ahead at 11-5 before closing out the match with a cross court smash. Sindhu will play defending champion Aditi Mutatkar of PSPB in the semifinals. Sayali Gokhale will play Neha Pandit in the other semifinal.

Results (prefix denotes seeding):
Men: Quarterfinals: 1-Sourabh Verma (PSPB) bt 15-Akshit Mahajan (Har) 21-19, 21-15; 4-HS Prannoy (PSPB) bt 8-K Nanda Gopal (AAI) 21-16, 21-16; Anand Pawar (AI) bt 12-RMV Gurusaidutt (PSPB) 13-21, 21-12, 21-16; 2-B Sai Praneeth (PSPB) bt K Srikanth (AP) 24-22, 21-7. Pre-quarterfinals: 8-K Nanda Gopal bt 10-Aditya Prakash (Kar) 20-22, 21-12, 22-20; 15-Akshit Mahajan (Har) bt 5-Pratul Joshi (AI) 23-21, 17-21, 21-14; 4-HS Prannoy bt 9-P Vinay Kumar Reddy (Rly) 21-6, 21-17; Anand Pawar bt 6-Arvind Bhat (PSPB) 21-9, 21-19; 12-RMV Gurusaidutt (PSPB) bt 3-Mohit Kamat (Rly) 21-13, 14-21, 21-4.

Doubles: Quarterfinals: Arun Vishnu/ K Tarun bt Abhijeet Naimpally/ Jagdish Yadav (Kar) 21-2, 21-9; D Guru Prasad/ Vineeth Manuel (Kar) bt Arup Baidya/ Sachin Ratti 21-12, 21-7; 5-T Rupesh Kumar/ Sanave Thomas bt Hemanagendra Babu/ Manu Attri 21-19, 21-15.
Women: Quarterfinals: 9-PV Sindhu (PSPB) bt 1-PC Thulasi (Ker) 19-21, 21-11, 21-12; 4-Aditi Mutatkar (PSPB) bt 8-Sahdev Mohita (AAI) 21-7, 21-7; 3-Sayali Gokhale (AI) bt Daya Elsa Jacob (Ker) 21-14, 21-9; 2-Neha Pandit (AAI) bt 12-Trupti Murgunde (PSPB) 21-15, 21-13.
Doubles: Quarterfinals: 1-Aparna Balan/ N Sikki Reddy bt 5-Saili Rane/ Arathi Sara Sunil 21-13, 21-8; 7-Daya Elsa Jacob/ Sneha Santhilal bt 4-Varsha Belawadi/ GM Nischitha (Kar) 21-19, 21-17; 2-Pradnya Gadre/ Prajakta Sawant bt 6-Poorvisha SR/ Nitya Sosale 21-12, 21-14.