India paddlers continued their good run and won a bronze medal for the country when Sutirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Sahasrabudhe lost in the women’s doubles semi-finals at the Australian Open at Gold Coast on Wednesday, reported PTI.
The Indians could not match their top seeded Chinese opponents Chen Meng and Zhu Ling, losing the encounter in straight games 4-11 6-11 2-11.
Sutirtha and Pooja had defeated crowd favourites Miao Miao and Jian Fang Lay of Australia 3-1 (11-9 12-14 8-11 9-11) to enter the last four round.
Earlier in men singles round of 32, Harmeet Desai lost to 12th seeded Japanese Maharu Yoshimura 11-7 11-6 16-14 11-8), while Sanil Shetty upset 13th seede Jang Woojin of Korea 11-9 3-11 12-10 11-3 6-11 11-8) and G Sathiyan accounted for 14th seeded Chinese Taipei’s Chen Chien-An 11-6 4-11 1-11 11-9 11-8 11-9.
In the pre-quarterfinals to be played later this evening, Sathiyan will take on Frenchman Simon Gauzy while Sanil will be up against Cho Seung-min of South Korea.