Gopi throws his weight around

While Gopichand hardly broke sweat as he took the first two games, he was made to work hard for his points thereafter.

Bhatt fought back into the match as he took the third and fourth games to set a thrilling final game which was also keenly contested with the players displaying some fine shots.

Earlier in a women’s singles semi-final, B R Meenakshi upset top seed P V V Laxmi 7-1, 7-1, 7-3 in just 26 minutes.

The second semi-final also saw an upset when second seeded Tripti Murugunde (Air India) was shown the door by Neelima Choudhary of Andhra Pradesh. Neelima beat Tripti 7-2, 7-5, 4-7, 7-1 in 40 minutes.

On Thursday, Gopichand entered the semi-finals with a straight games win over J B S Vidyadhar of Railways. Gopichand won 7-3, 8-6, 7-2 in 30 minutes. Bhatt had defeated C M Sashidharan of Andhra Pradesh 4-7, 7-2, 7-4, 8-6 in another quarter-final.

Siddharth jain defeated Thomas Kurien of Kerala 7-3, 5-7, 7-3, 7-4 in 45 minutes while Ratti took just over half an hour to beat Chetan Anand 7-2, 7-2, 7-4 to complete semifinal line-up.

In the women’s section, P V V Laxmi of PSCB was the first to move into the semi-finals defeating Poonam Tiwari (Rly) 7-0, 7-0, 7-1.

In the second round matches played earlier in the day, Gopichand had registered a 7-1, 7-1, 7-1 victory against Nement Duggal of Railways to move into the quarter finals.