India Open tournament saw India’s ace players Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap sealing their spot in the semi-finals.
In the quarter-finals at New Delhi, Srikanth defeated Sai Praneeth 21-23, 21-11, 21-19 and Kashyap won over Tzu Wei Wang of Taiwan 21-16, 21-11.
With this victory after the 62-minute duel, Srikanth had made eight quarter-final finishes in the last nine tournaments and he didn’t look as if he will make it this time after he lost the opening game narrowly and lagged 1-7 in the second.
But he saved 5 game points after fighting back from 16-20 down before Praneeth staved off the challenge to take the opening game. Even though Praneeth managed to grab a 7-1 lead to a stirring but Srikanth leaped back strongly to take the match to the decider.
On the adjacent court Kashyap made a confident start but his opponent Wang was strong enough to keep him in pace who enjoyed an 11-8 lead at the break. Kashyap lead 6-3 in the second game who said that Wang is a tricky player who has good skills at the net.
