Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], December 2 (ANI): Young Indian shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat and women’s doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa will be in action in the semifinals of their respective categories at the ongoing Syed Modi International badminton tournament on Saturday.
Priyanshu, ranked world number 31, defeated Indonesia’s Alwi Farhan, the current junior world number one shuttler in the quarters by 21-15, 21-16 to move to the final four. He is the only Indian singles player active in this Badminton World Federation (BWF) Super 300 tournament, as per Olympics.com.
Priyanshu’s semifinal opponent will be Taiwan’s Chi Yu Jen.
The shuttler had earlier won the Orleans Masters title this year and shown his promise. He led the game one from the start and won it easily, but was made to work hard in the second game.
In the second game, Priyanshu fumbled his five-point lead and was trailing by 11-14 at one point, but the Indian fought back and won the match in 49 minutes.
Coming to the women’s doubles competition, Tanisha and Ashwini beat compatriots Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand by 21-19, 21-8 in an all-Indian quarterfinal.
Jolly and Gopichand, the Commonwealth Games 2022 medalists had an edge in the first game with a 19-18 lead but Crasto and Ponappa won the final three points to win the game. The next one was a one-sided affair and the latter won the match within 35 minutes.
All the results from the Syed Modi India International will be counted towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The tournament started on November 28 in Lucknow and will continue till December 3. (ANI)
