Mumbai: Top seed R M V Gurusaidutt entered the men's singles semi-finals, but women's defending champion P C Thulasi and reigning national champion Sayali Gokhale were knocked out of the USD 15,000 Tata Open India International Challenge Badminton tournament here today. Gurusaidutt, the defending men's champion, came through two rounds to reach the last four.
First he outclassed compatriot Mohit Kamat in pre-quarter finals and then the title holder stepped up his play when needed in the second game after trailing 4-7 to shut out Chinese Taipei rival Chia Hung Lu 21-12 21-18.
Thulasi, seeded fourth, could not counter the pace and power of her Chinese Taipei rival Chia Tsin Lee, the sixth seed, and went down in straight games.
The Indian shuttler made a strong recovery from 0-13 in the second game before losing the quarterfinal tie 14-21 18-21 at the Cricket Club of India here.
Eighth seeded Sayali, who won the national crown last year at Srinagar, gave a good fight to Chinese Taipei's Yu Chieh Cheng before losing 10-21 25-23 21-19 in the pre-quarterfinals. For the major part of the one hour encounter between Sayali and Cheng, the Indian looked most likely to make the last eight grade. But it was Cheng's ability to raise the bar on crucial points that made the difference.
Also knocked out in the pre-quarters was the corresponding men's seed Anup Sridhar who was beaten 21-15 21-10 by Taipei's Chia Hung Lu.
Men's fourth seed Saurabh Varma completely dominated his challenger, junior national champion Aditya Joshi, in an one-sided quarterfinal match to enter the semis with a thumping 21-8 21-9 victory. Gurusaidutt will meet Varma tomorrow.
Last year's losing finalist and tournament top seed Febby Angguni of Indonesia sailed through to the last four with a 21-8 21-13 demolition of fifth seeded Indian rival Saili Rane in their quarterfinal match.
Linette to clash with Fujiwara for singles ITF title
Mumbai: Polish top seed Magda Linette will clash with giant-killing qualifier Rika Fujiwara of Japan in the women's singles finals of the USD 25000 Ganesh Naik ITF women's tennis championships in Navi Mumbai tomorrow.
In today's semi-final, Linette came back from a set down to defeat Kamila Keribayeva of Kazakhstan 6-8(6) 6-1 7-5 in a battle that lasted two hours and 36 minutes.
In a repeat of last week's final, Linette had to put her best foot forward to scrape past Kamila, who managed to save a match point at 5-4 in the third set before losing. In the other semifinal, old warhorse Rika Fujiwara stopped the winning run of qualifier Anna Smith of Great Britain 6-4 6-3 in an hour and 10 minutes to make it to her first final in over three years. Smith combined with compatriot Jocelyn Rae to win the doubles title of the event, organised by the the Navi Mumbai Sports Association.
The British pair outplayed Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia and Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia 6-4 7-6(5) in the final. The British pair had beaten India's Prarthana Thombare and Ankita Raina 7-5 6-3 in the semifinals.
