Indian shuttlers playing at the Ethiopia International, Polish International and the Belgian Juniors propped up a strong showing on Saturday. As it stands, four Indian players are in contention in the finals to be played on Sunday across the three events, both in singles as well as doubles.
The following is a recap of Saturday’s results featuring Indian shuttlers:
Ethiopia International
Second seed Aditya Joshi fought off a tough challenge in his semi-final to reach the men’s singles final in Addis Ababa.
Earlier, Joshi faced no problems in his quarter-final against the Egyptian eighth seed Mohamed Mostafa Kamel as he reached the semi-final with an easy 21-13, 21-6 victory. In the penultimate match-up against the unseeded Turkish player Emre Lale, Joshi dropped the opening game before recovering to secure a 15-21, 23-21, 21-15 win.
In men’s doubles, the top-seeded Indian team of Arjun MR and Shlok Ramchandran secured two wins on the day to make it to the final. Beginning the day’s play, the Indians defeated the Ugandan duo of Herbert Ebayo and Jacob Musisi 21-14, 21-10 in the quarter-finals. In the semi-final, the Arjun and Shlok got past the fourth-seeded Egyptian team of Adham Hatem Elgamal and Mohamed Mostafa Kamel 21-10, 21-6.
Arjun and Shlok will play the third-seeded Jordanian pair of Bahaedeen Ahmad Alshannik and Mohd Naser Mansour Nayef in the final.
Polish International
Maneesha K and Arathi Sara Sunil finished runner’s-up in the women’s doubles category after losing 21-19, 24-22 to Jenny Moore and Victoria Williams of England in the final.
They had earlier posted two consecutive wins on Saturday in their quarter-final and semi-final matches in Bierun.
In the quarter-final, Maneesha and Arathi comprehensively defeated the Czech team of Magdalena Lajdova and Denisa Sikalova 21-5, 21-16. In the penultimate round, the Indian duo got past the Polish pairing of Kornelia Marczak and Magdalena Witek, 21-12, 21-13.
On Saturday, Daniel S Farid’s defeat in the quarter-final. The twenty-year-old put up a tough fight against the third-seeeded Malaysian Lee Zii Jia before the latter claimed a 21-19, 18-21, 21-6 win.
Belgian Juniors
Second seed Vaishnavi Jakka Reddy kept up the nation’s momentum in Herstal as she made it to the final, winning as many as three matches on Saturday. The 15-year-old faced no problems against German Maria Kuse in the third round as she won 21-8, 21-13.
The unseeded Dutch player Madouc Linders, however, gave Jakka Reddy quite a scare in the quarter-finals as she took the opening game 21-17. The second game tested both players’ limits, before the Indian junior showed her mettle by winning the game 26-24 so as to push the match to the third game. The final game proved to be far easier for Jakka Reddy as she swept past Linders 21-9 to advance into the semi-final.
Jakka Reddy’s final match of the day was a no-fuss affair as she claimed a 21-15, 22-20 win over Swiss player Jenjira Stadelmann in the semi-finals. In the final, Jakka Reddy will play the top-seed Vivien Sandorhazi of Hungary.
In the junior boys’ singles, Sanjay Aman Farogh faltered in his third round against the 10th seeded English player Zach Russ. The opening game was closely played between the two opponents, but Russ had no problems in closing the win in two games, 22-20, 21-13.