Gopi, Abhinn to contest final

In the semifinals, Aparna defeated Neelima Chowdhury of PSCB 11-5 11-3 while BR Mennakshi had a hard-fought victory over PVV Lakshmi (PSCB) 9-11 11-8 11-6.

In the men’s semifinals, P Gopi Chand defeated Siddharth Jain (PSCB) 14-17 15-3 15-5, while Abhinn Shyam Gupta defeated Nikhil Kanetkar (PSCB) in straight games, 15-8 15-9.

Lakshmi took a 5-0 lead in the very first service and added two more points. Later Meenakshi was trailing 3-10 at one stage but fought gallantly to reduce the lead to 9-10. However she lost the first game 11-9. In the second, trailing 0-3, Meenakshi levelled the score at 3-3 and again at 6-6 but after some rallies won 11-8 and levelled thematch one-game each.

In the decider, Meenakshi, after trailing 4-5, won the match 11-6.In the men’s single semi-final between Gopi and Siddharth, the score was levelled at 4-4, 7-7 and 9-9 before Gopi Chand took a lead of 13-9.

Siddharth produced a few good smashes to level the score at 14-14, and win the first game 17-14. Thereafter, Gopi dominated the match and won 15-3, 15-5. He took 73 minutes to win the tie.

Other Results

Men’s singles (QF): P Gopi Chand bt Chetan Anand 10-15, 15-5, 15-7, Abhinn Shyam Gupta bt Ajit Wijetilak 16-17, 15-13, 15-1, Siddharth Jain bt Sachin Ratti 15-6, 15-7, Nikhil Kanetkar bt Anuj Gupta 11-15, 15-11, 13-6 (conceded)

Men’s doubles (quarter-finals): AW Tilak/J George bt Jaseel P Ismail/V Lobo 15-12, 15-10, Bhushan Akut/Srikant Bakshi bt Anuj Gupta/Thomas Kurien 11-15, 15-9, 15-11

Women’s singles (quarter-finals): Aparna Popat bt Oli Deka 11-2, 11-2, Neelima Chowdhury bt Trupti Murgunde 4-11, 11-9, 11-7, PVV Lakshmi bt CH Deepti 8-11, 11-0,11-6, BR Meenakshi bt Sampada Shetty 11-4, 6-11, 11-3

Mixed doubles (quarter-finals): Vinod Kumar/BR Meenakshy bt Manish Sharma/Poonam Tewari 15-10, 15-6, V Lobo/T Murgunde bt J Xavier/T Begum 15-11, 15-4, Markose Bristo/Madhumita Bisht bt JBS Vidyadhar/G Jwala 15-13, 15-10, Vijay Deep Singh/PVV Laxmi bt Bhaskar Bora/Oli Deka 15-8, 15-7