India's medal hope rests on mixed doubles pair

New Delhi:

Pranav Chopra teamed up with Sawant Prajakta to keep India's medal hopes alive as they reached the mixed doubles semi-finals while the rest of the challenge fell by the wayside in the Asian Youth (U-19) badminton championships in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

Pranav and Prajakta first edged out Indonesian pair of Pratama Angga and Haris Della Destiara 23-21, 9-21, 21-14 in a 32-minute pre-quarter final clash.

The Indians then defeated Malaysian duo of Tan Wee Tat and Ng Hui Ern 21-17, 21-12 to set up a last-four encounter with Chinese pair of Lu Kai and Bao Yixin o Sunday.

Pranav, though, could not carry on the good work in men's doubles as he and Sai Praneet went down 17-21, 8-21 to Indonesians Pratama Angga and Sugiarto Yohanes in the quarter-finals.

The second-seeded Indian duo had earlier got the better of Kobayashi Akira and Hoshino Shohei of Japan 21-17, 21-17. In singles, all four shuttlers failed to clear the hurdle at the pre-quarter final stage.

Saili Rane went down 15-21, 17-21 to Lestari Qoryatin Siti Anida of Indonesia while Sikki Reddy lost 15-21, 16-21 to another Indonesian Rovita Ana in in women's singles.

The India's men shuttlers fared no better as Sumeeth Reddy squandered an early advantage before going down 22-20, 12-21, 16-21 to seventh-seed Poodchalat Pisit of Thailand.

Third-seed local player Zulkifli Zulfadli then accounted for India's HS Prannoy 21-18, 21-14.

Sikki later teamed up with PC Thulasi in women's doubles but lost 19-21, 21-15, 16-21 to Poon Lok Yan and Tse Ying Suet of Hong Kong in the round of 16.