Gurusaidutt, Srikanth in semis of Macau Open

Indian shuttlers R M V Gurusaidutt and K Srikanth notched contrasting victories to enter the semi-finals of the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold on Friday.

Seeded 12th, Gurusaidutt sailed past Yan Kit Chan of Hong Kong, winning 21-11, 21-14 in 34 minutes at the Macau Forum, thereby taking their head-to-head record to two-all.

The world No 51 Indian, who reached a career-high ranking of 37 earlier in February, dominated his opponent in the first game.

Chan tried to stage a comeback in the second, and at one stage trailed Gurusaidutt 14-16.

But the Indian didn't allow his opponent any room thereafter and pocketed five straight points to seal in his place in the last four, where he will be up against Chinese World No.65 Yuekun Chen on Saturday.

Srikanth, on the other hand, had to sweat it out against Nan Wei of Hong Kong before registering a 16-21, 21-19, 21-19 victory in 62 minutes.

The first game saw a neck-and-neck fight between Srikanth and Wei till 15 points before the world No 90 shuttler from Hong Kong ran away with the game.

The second and third games were also keen, both games reaching 19-all. But the world No. 109-ranked Indian, who has climbed more than 200 places in the rankings since the start of the season, clinched the final two points in both the games to make it to the semi-finals, where he will face another Chinese Huan Gao.

However, it was curtains for doubles specialist Ashwini Ponnappa, who crashed out in the quarter-finals of the mixed and women's doubles.

While Ashwini and Tarun Kona lost 9-21, 13-21 to top seeds Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir of Indonesia in the mixed doubles, the pair of Ashwini and Pradnya Gadre went down 16-21 21-12 15-21 to Komala Dewi and Jenna Gozali of Indonesia in the women's doubles.