Lancy, Bakshi in summit clash

Bakshi, after losing the first game speeded up the exchanges by keeping the trajectory flat. He also forced Lobo to toss, which was easy meat for him. Bakshi won 13-18, 15-8, 15-9.

Lancy, on the other hand, dropped the pace after he lost the lead in the second game. He preserved his stamina after Ratti had taken decent lead. After getting a five minute rest before the decider, Lancy came roaring back and powered to a 15-11, 10-15, 15-12 victory.

Lobo, who was trailing 1-5 in the first game made it 8-5 in his favour with his sharp half-smashes and smart net dribbles. He won the first game 18-13. The next two games were dominated by Bakshi, who despite suffering from tendanitis for a year, showed no signs of his injury. He had started training only a month back with former international Vikram Singh.

Lanky Lancy took full advantage of his height and won the first game 15-11. But his efforts in the first game had drained him of strength and he took every opportunity to slow down, even changing shuttles frequently. He lost the second game 10-15. In the third game, however, Lancy was helped in the crucial points by Ratti’s errors and the Maharashtra man won 15-12 in the final game.

In the women’s singles semi-finals, top seed and world junior runner-up Aparna Popat took merely 28 minutes to thrash Neelima Chaudhary of Andhra Pradesh 11-4, 11-8, while P V V Lakshmi sailed into the final by beating Divya Ramesh of Karnataka.

Lakshmi won 11-4, 11-5. Earlier, in the quarter-finals, Divya stunned third seed Nirmala Kotnis of Maharashtra in a three-game battle. The finals will start tomorrow at 4 pm.

RESULTS All semi-finals

Men’s: Srikant Bakshi (Del) bt Vincent Lobo (Mah) 13-18, 15-8, 15-9, Vijay Lancy (Mah) bt Sachin Ratti (Pun) 15-11, 10-15, 15-12.

Women’s: Aparna Popat (Kar) bt Neelima Chaudhary (AP) 11-4, 11-8, P V V Lakshmi (AP) bt Divya Ramesh (Kar) 11-4, 11-5.