Guwahati Masters: 17-year-old Anmol Kharb reaches first World Tour final, Ashwini-Tanisha on course for title defence
Teenager Anmol Kharb, who is now ranked just inside the world's top 100, faces Chinese qualifier Cai Yan Yan in the women's singles title clash at the Guwahati Masters.
17-year-old Anmol Kharb makes it to the finals of Guwahati Masters in Women's Singles (BAI) India will have representatives in three out of five finals at the Guwahati Masters Super 100 badminton tournament on Sunday. Rising young talent Anmol Kharb in women’s singles, defending champions Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto in women’s doubles, and third seed Sathish Kumar Karunankaran in men’s singles prevailed in their respective semifinals on Saturday.
In an all-Indian women’s singles semifinal, Anmol defeated Mansi Singh 21-19, 21-17 in just 40 minutes to reach her first World Tour final. The 17-year-old, who has had a breakthrough year so far after impressing during India’s triumph at the Asian team championships, has won two international titles previously: one an International Series and the other an International Challenge. If she manages to triumph in Guwahati, it will be her biggest victory yet. Her most impressive win this week came in the quarterfinals as she defeated defending champion Lalinrat Chaiwan of Thailand 21-13, 22-24, 22-20 in an hour and 14 minutes.
Anmol, who is now ranked just inside the world’s top 100, faces Chinese qualifier Cai Yan Yan in the title clash, who overcame Syed Modi Super 300 finalist Wu Luo Yu in straight games.
In the women’s doubles semi-finals, top seeds Ashwini and Tanisha eased to a 21-14, 21-14 win over Keng Shu Liang and Wang Ting Ge of China. They will face another Chinese combination of Li Hua Zhou and Wang Zi Meng as they aim to become the only champions from the first edition to retain the title. Tanisha, however, missed out on making it two finals as she and Dhruv Kapila lost in the mixed doubles semifinals.
Sathish Kumar ended the day for India with a come-from-behind 13-21, 21-14, 21-16 win over sixth seed Wang Zheng Xing of China. In the men’s singles final, Sathish Kumar will look to add another Super 100 title to his trophy cabinet. The 23-year-old, who had won the Odisha Masters Super 100 last year, will face another Chinese qualifier Zhu Xuan Chen.
The mixed doubles final will witness a clash between China’s Zhang Han Yu and Bao Li Jing against Rory Easton and Lizzie Tolman of England while China’s Huang Di and Liu Yang will take on Chia Weijie and Lwi Sheng Hao of Malaysia in the men’s doubles final.
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