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It's Saina vs Sindhu final; Srikanth to meet Wei

April 14, 2018

Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei beats Prannoy to dash hopes of All-India singles finals.

IMAGE: India's Saina Nehwal in action in the women's singles badminton at the Commonwealth Games.. Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

India's badminton queens Pusarla Sindhu and Saina Nehwal set up the much-anticipated women's singles final at the Commonwealth Games after winning their respective semi-finals in contrasting fashion on Saturday.

Sindhu, who missed the mixed team competition due to an ankle sprain, defeated defending champion Michelle Li 21-18 21-8 in just 26 minutes while former world No 1 Saina had to dig deep to get past 2014 silver medallist Kristy Gilmour 21-14, 18-21, 21-17 in 68 minutes

With two star shuttlers reaching the final, India are assured of gold and silver in the women's singles.

 

Saina, the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games champion, and Rio Olympics silver medallist Sindhu, who bronze at the Games in 2014, had clashed in the Senior National championship final last November and it was the former who had the last laugh.

Newly-crowned world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth also progressed to the final of the men's singles, defeating 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Rajiv Ouseph of England 21-10 21-17 in little over 30 minutes.

However, three-time Olympic silver medallist Lee Chong Wei prevented an all-Indian men's singles clash by getting the better of H S Prannoy 21-16, 9-21, 21-14 in the other semi-final

Earlier, the young Indian pair of Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made it to the final of the men's doubles with a 21-18, 21-10 win over Sri Lanka's Sachin Dias and Buwaneka Goonethilleka.

Assured of at least a silver, Satwik and Chirag will be the first Indian pair to win a men's doubles medal at the Commonwealth Games.

"We started off pretty badly, like till 17 we were down, and in the end we played a bit more steady and smarter to take the game.

“The second game we started off confidently right from first point and that's what helped us," Chirag said.

Satwik and Chirag will meet Rio Olympics bronze medallists Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge on Sunday.

Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, however, lost 21-17, 15-21, 4-21 to the Malaysian pair of Mei Kuan Chow and Vivian Hoo in the women's doubles semi-finals.

They will play local hopes Setyana Mapasa and Gronya Somerville later in the day for the bronze medal.

Ashwini and Satwik also went down fighting 22-20, 18-21, 16-21 to England's Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith in the mixed doubles semi-finals and will play for bronze.

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