Kidambi Srikanth Enters Final, Pranaav-Akshay Stun World No. 7 in Syed Modi International

India's Kidambi Srikanth came out with a fantastic performance to ease past Thai 11th seed Boonsak Ponsana in straight games to enter the men's singles final of the $120,000 Syed Modi International Badminton Championships on Saturday. (Read More in Badminton)

Top seed Srikanth needed just 32 minutes to come out on top with a 21-14, 21-7 victory in the semi-final at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium, which made him extend his career record to 3-1 against Ponsana.

A finalist here the last two years, Srikanth will be playing the Grand Prix Gold tournament title match for the third straight year hoping to be third time lucky.

The Guntur-born completely dominated the 11th seed in both the games.

In the first game, the 22-year-old took flight to earn an early 11-6 lead from where he won the next five points to make it 16-6. World No.28 Ponsana tried closing the gap but it was a bit too much for the Thai shuttler to take it to the wire.

World No.9 Srikanth raced away to a huge lead in the second game too which he kept extending, eventually winning 21 of the 28 points played in the game. From 12-6, he lost only one point in the next 10 played to clinch the game, match and enter the summit clash.

In the title clash, he will take on China's Huang Yuxiang.

Pranaav Jerry Chopra-Akshay Dewalkar maintain golden run

Rising Indian doubles duo of Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Jerry Chopra stunned World No. 7 Koreans Kim Gi Jung and Kim Sa Rang in an edge-of-the-seat semifinals to seal their maiden Grand Prix Gold final.

The World No. 36 Indian combo punched over their weight when they edged out Gi Jung and Sa Rang, the two-time World Championship bronze medallist pair, 25-23, 13-21, 21-17 in a match that lasted an hour and four minutes.

Kim Sa Rang, who hit the net twice to hand over the match to the Indian pair in the decider, found the loss a bitter pill to swallow and broke all the racquets in his bag in anger after the match. He was also shown the yellow card for throwing his racquet after the defeat.

Among others in fray, Commonwealth Games silver medallists Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa failed to break the Korean pair of Jung Kyung Eun and Shin Seung Chan and went down sheepishly 14-21, 16-21 in a women's doubles match that lasted 39 minutes here.

Pranaav and Akshay, who had come into the match with a dismal 0-3 record against their fancied Korean rivals, played out of their skin to set up a summit clash with unseeded Malaysian combination of V Shem Goh and Wee Kiong Tan, who dispatched top seeds and London Olympics silver medallists Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark 21-16 21-18 in another semifinal clash.

Pranaav and Akshay fought neck and neck till 13-13 in the first game. The Indian then opened up an 18-16 lead before reaching the game point at 20-19 but what ensued next was a quick exchange of game points as both the rivals engaged in fierce rallies.

Cheered on by the vociferous crowd, it was Pranaav and Akshay who crossed the finishing line in the opening game when Kim G J found the net.

The Indian pair struggled with their lifts early on as most of them found the net to allow the Korean pair lead 7-2.

Pranaav then came up with few towering smashes from back of the court to narrow it down to 7-10 but an unforced error helped the Koreans go into the break with a 11-7 lead.

After the break, Koreans continues to rule the roost as the Indian pair had no answers to their fast paced rallies. Finally a buried net shot gave the Koreans the game point and they sealed it with Sa Rang coming up with a smash.

In the decider, India lead 7-5 and despite a periodic onslaught from Korea made to 10-6. But they finally entered the interval at 11-9 when the Koreans hit the net. Akshay lacked the finishing touch in the last few points but he started with an outstretched backhand smash after the break.

The rallies became faster and aggressive after that but the Koreans picked up the gaps well to wrest back the lead at 14-13. However, the lead soon changed hands frequently before the Indian pair grabbed three match points and then wrapped it off in first chance with the Koreans finding the net thrice.

(With Inputs from PTI)