Prannoy assured of silver

Prannoy had to dig deep to produce a stunning 19-21, 21-17, 21-17 win over top seed Kang Ji Wook of Korea in the first semifinal. The Kerela shuttler, who had lost to Kang in the semifinals of World Championship, bounced back from a game down and held his nerves in crucial moments to bring cheers to the Indian camp.

He will now face Poodchalat Pisit, who beat Low Wei Sheng 21-13, 19-21, 21-3 in the second semifinal, in the final on Friday.

“It was a great victory for Prannoy. He was attacking and his backhand looked good. He lost the first game but he bounced back and played well in crucial moments,” National coach Pullela Gopichand told PTI.

In tennis, sixth seed Yuki continued his rampaging run in the tournament and beat John Morrissey of Ireland 6-4, 6-4 to set up a semifinal clash with second seed Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegov, who beat seventh seed Hungarian Mate Zsiga 6-4, 6-2.

“It was an up and down match, and the momentum kept shifting. Every match is going to be tough now,” a delighted Yuki said after winning his match.

In archery, Atanu Das shot 637 in the junior men’s individual ranking round to finish fifth while Seema Verma scored 635 in the women’s ranking round also to end up fifth.
Seema then spanked Sorsa Tanja of Finland 6-0 in the 1/16 elimination round but it was all over for Atanu in the men’s elimination round as he lost to Hautamaki Joni of Finland 5-6.

In the mixed team 1/16 elimination, Atanu and Miranda Leek of USA failed to get past the Dutch-Armenia pair of Maud Custers and Shahnazaryan Vasil and lost 4-6 at the Kallang Field.

Seema was unlucky in the mixed team 1/16 elimination as she and her partner Linster lost 1-3 to Wojnicka Aleksandra and Yilmaz Yaqiz.Indian boys basketball team went down 20-33 to Greece in the preliminary Group A match.