Young shuttlers Unnati Hooda and Priyanshu Rajawat produced impressive results in the women’s and men’s singles events respectively at the Odisha Open badminton tournament in Cuttack on Friday.
In one of the most significant results of the day that came in the women’s singles quarterfinal, 14-year-old Hooda handed fellow Indian Samiya Imad Farooqui a 21-10 21-15 defeat in 26 minutes.
Kiran George upset third seed Subhankar Dey to advance to the men’s singles semifinals while in-form shuttler Malvika Bansod also cruised to the last four round.
Hooda will lock horns with Bansod, ranked 87th, in the semifinal.
The unseeded Kiran eked out a hard-fought 21-16 10-21 21-19 win over the higher ranked Subhankar, who was the last remaining seed in the men’s singles event.
The 21-year-old Indian will meet compatriot Ansal Yadav, who beat qualifier Tharun Mannepalli 21-15 23-21, in the semifinals on Saturday.
The other men’s singles semifinal match on Saturday will be played between Priyanshu Rajawat and Kaushal Dharmamer.
Rajawat, 19 years old, beat unseeded but in-form Mithun Manjunath, who had stunned seventh seed June Wei Cheam of Malaysia on Thursday, 13-21, 21-14 21-8 in 51 minutes in the quarterfinals.
Dharmamer defeated Abhyansh Singh 14-21 21-18 21-18 in another men’s singles quarterfinal match.
Bansod, who reached the final of the Syed Modi International where she lost to PV Sindhu after defeating Saina Nehwal at the India Open earlier this month, continued to impress as she registered a 21-13 16-21 21-17 victory over fellow Indian Tanya Hemanth in a gruelling 58-minute quarterfinal contest.
Fifth seed (effectively the top seed) Ashmita Chaliha got the better of Rhucha Sawant 21-17 21-15 to book her spot in the last four of the women’s singles, where she will meet compatriot Smit Toshniwal, who came from behind to beat USA’s Ishika Jaiswal 8-21 21-9 21-14. Jaiswal had been in good form at the tournament, defeating Aditi Bhatt and Deepshika Singh earlier in gruelling matches.
In the men’s doubles, Vasantha Kumar and Ashith Surya will face Ravikrishna and Sankar Prasad Udaykumar in one of the semifinals. The biggest disappointment of the day for India came in men’s doubles as Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala lost against the Sri Lankan duo of Sachin Dias and Buwaneka Goonethilleka 21-23 21-17 21-15 in 53 minutes. The latter will meet the Malaysian pair of Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub and Lim Khim Wah in the other semifinal.
In the women’s doubles, fifth seeded Indian duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand beat compatriots Vaishnavi Khadkekar 21-7 21-3 in just 18 minutes to reach the semifinals. They will face another Indian duo of Arul Bala Radhakrishnan and Nila Valluvan in the semifinals.
The other semifinal will be played between eighth seeded pair of Sanyogita Ghorpade and Shruti Mishra and the Indian-American duo of Srivedya Gurazada and Ishika Jaiswal.
In the mixed doubles event, three Indian pairings – MR Arjun-Treesa Jolly, Balkeshari Yadav-Swetaparna Panda and Mauryan Kathiravan-Kuham Balashri – advanced to the semifinals.
With PTI inputs
The semifinals matches of Odisha Open Super 100 event will be broadcast live on DD Sports in India.
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