K Srikanth and K Nandagopal have been used to facing each
other for years in their backyard and the business end of the Andhra state
championship. But a chance to face off in the 77th Senior National Badminton
championship seems a realistic possibility after both the brothers registered
convincing wins in the quarterfinals.
Srikanth, who won the Maldives International earlier this
year, got the better of former junior national champion RMV Guru Sai Dutt
21-13, 21-19 while Nandagopal hammered giant killer Shreyansh Jaiswal 21-18,
21-9 to reach the semifinals.
Srikanth will now take on London Olympic bronze medallist P
Kashyap while Nandagopal will meet Ajay Jayaram for a berth in the final.
While Nandagopal was a runaway favourite in the
quarterfinals, it was the younger brother Srikanth who came up with a special
performance to upset his senior at the Gopichand Badminton Academy.
There were no flashy strokes, nor any extraordinary game
plan. But Srikanth showed the value of sticking to the basics and not allowing
any opportunity to score a point pass by. He kept things tight at the net and
used the height advantage whenever Guru struggled with the length of his lifts.
The only time, Srikanth felt the jitters was when he had
three match points and tried to hurry the rallies. He mistimed a smash and then
put a simple net dribble in the net before Guru pushed a drive over the
baseline to hand the boy from Guntur his maiden semifinal appearance in the
senior nationals.
In the other matches, Kashyap continued his dominance on Sai
Praneeth with a 21-18, 21-19 victory while Ajay recovered from a bad start to
thrash Abhimanyu Singh 18-21, 21-9, 21-6.
In the women’s singles, pre tournament favourite PV Sindhu
sailed into the semifinals and will face Arundhati Pantawane, who upset top
seed Neha Pandit 14-21, 21-16, 21-15. The other semifinal will see former
national champion Sayali Gokhale take on junior national champion Tanvi Lad.
Results:
Men: Singles: 6-K Nandagopal (AAI) bt Shreyansh Jaiswal (CG)
21-18, 21-9; Ajay Jayaram (PSPB) bt Abhimanyu Singh (MP) 18-21, 21-9, 21-6; P
Kashyap (PSPB) bt 2-B Sai Praneeth 21-18, 21-19; 8-K Srikanth (AP) bt 14-RMV
Guru Sai Dutt (PSPB) 21-13, 21-19
Doubles: Manu Atri/B Sumeeth Reddy w/o Rupesh Kumar/Sanave
Thomas; 3-Akshay Dewalkar (AI)/Pranav Chopra (PSPB) bt 7-Venkat Gaurav/Manish
Gupta (CG) 21-14, 21-13; 2-D Guru Prasad/Vineeth Manuel (KTK) bt Surender
Rathee/Neeraj Vashisth (HAR) 21-11, 21-17
Women: Singles: Arundhati Pantawane (PSPB) bt 1-Neha Pandit
(AI) 14-21, 21-16, 21-15; 3-PV Sindhu (PSPB) bt 23-Anita Ohlan (RLY) 21-13, 8-3
ret; 2-Sayali Gokhale (AI) bt 7-PC Thulasi (PSPB) 23-21, 21-19; 9-Tanvi Lad (AI)
bt 11-Trupti Murgunde (PSPB) 21-15, 21-16
Doubles: 1-Aparna Balan (PSPB)/N Sikki Reddy (AAI) bt
6-Anita Ohlan/Dhanya Nair (RLY) 21-12, 21-11; 4-Sanyogita Ghorpade (MAH)/Saili
Rane (AI) bt K Suneri/S Darshini 21-16, 21-17; Pradnya Gadre (AAI)/K Maneesha (AP)
bt 3-Prajakta Sawant/Trupti Murgunde (PSPB) 21-14, 21-18; 2-Varsha Belawadi/GM
Nischita (KTK) bt Sonal More/Vinaya Shetty (MAH) 19-21, 21-18, 21-10
Mixed: K Maneesha (AP)/ Pranav Chopra (PSPB) bt Manasi
Gadgil/Nishad Dravid (MAH) 21-18, 21-13; Ashwini Ponappa/K Tarun (PSPB) bt Juhi
Dewagan/venkat Gaurav (CG) 21-15, 21-8; 1-Aparna Balan/Arun Vishnu (PSPB) bt
6-K Suneri/Vijay Aloysius (TN) 21-9, 21-16; 4-Manu Atri (AAI)/Prajakta Sawant (PSPB)
bt Susan Rajan/Ram C Vijay (KER) 21-9, 21-10
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