Haren
At the quarterfinals stage of the women’s singles draw at the Syed Modi International, India will have a representative in each of the four matches. One, of course, is PV Sindhu, the stalwart of Indian badminton who has seen it all. But the encouraging sign is that among the other three one was born 2005 and two in 2007.
On Thursday, the three young Indians – Tasnim Mir and the pair of 17-year-olds in Unnati Hooda and Shriyanshi Valishetty – registered impressive second-round wins, each against higher-ranked players. Tasnim got the better of fifth seed Anupama Upadhyaya 21-15, 13-21, 21-7 in 53 minutes. Unnati overcame the heartbreak of losing two three-game battles against fourth seed Pornpicha Choeikeewong in the past, to prevail 21-18, 22-20 in a match that featured many grueling rallies.
The most impressive result for India was perhaps that of Shriyanshi who beat the second seed and in-form Malvika Bansod 21-12, 21-15 in just 34 minutes. In the form Malvika has been in recent weeks, a final against Sindhu was on the cards this week but Shriyanshi had other ideas.
It’s a special feeling for PV Sindhu to step onto her home ground in Lucknow at Syed Modi India International 2024 🏸#SyedModiInternational #SyedModi2024 #PVSindhu@BAI_Media @UPGovtSports @UPBadmintonA @Pvsindhu1 pic.twitter.com/vOOblVyGmY
— Doordarshan Sports (@ddsportschannel) November 28, 2024
Meanwhile, Sindhu survived a scare against another Indian in Ira Sharma 21-10, 12-21, 21-15 in 49 minutes and entered the last eight of the Super 300 event in Lucknow. Ira isn’t quite a young prodigy anymore, at 24 she is currently ranked 147th in the world. But she had world No.18 and the top seed for this event in serious strife. Having won the opening game at a canter, Sindhu fell to 1-11 in the second game before eventually losing it 12-21. In the third game too, the contest was neck-and-neck, with Sindhu trailing 14-15. But that is when Ira’s game fell through while Sindhu dipped into her deep reserves of experience to win 7 straight points.
Sindhu, the only seeded player still standing, next faces Dai Wang, ranked 118th in the world. The 23-year-old Wang beat Devika Sihag 21-14, 21-15 and is one of the two Chinese shuttlers remaining in the draw, potentially preventing an all-Indian final.
Lucknow presents a golden chance for two star Indian shuttlers to close out a disappointing season with a title. Like Sindhu, Lakshya Sen is also the top seed in men’s singles and Syed Modi is also their respective final event of 2024, having not qualified for the season finale. While Sindhu has been waiting since July 2022 for an individual title, Lakshya’s wait has been ongoing since July 2023’s triumph in Canada.
Lakshya, backing up his confidence-boosting win against Lee Zii Jia last week, has prevailed in straight games in both matches so far. In the second round, he won against Daniil Dubovenko of Israel 21-14, 21-13 in 35 minutes to set up an intriguing quarterfinal against Meiraba Luwang. Meiraba, who is regarded at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy as someone with the potential to be as good as Lakshya, pulled off an upset win 21-15, 21-13 against sixth seed Nhat Nguyen of Ireland.
While Lakshya and Meiraba feature in an all-Indian clash, Ayush Shetty, second seed Priyanshu Rajawat, and Rithvik Sanjeevi Satish Kumar will feature in the other quarterfinals. Third seed Kiran George, however, lost 21-19, 20-22, 11-21 against Shogo Ogawa of Japan.
In women’s doubles, India’s top two pairs and the top two seeds in this tournament, stayed on course to meet in the final as both Tanisha Crasto-Ashwini Ponnappa and Gayatri Gopichand-Treesa Jolly advanced. Tanisha will be in quarterfinal action in mixed doubles too, along with Dhruv Kapila. In men’s doubles, Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy and Sai Pratheek, who were drawn to face SatChi before the top seeds withdrew, overcame a Chinese pair in Guo Ruo Han and Chen Xu Jun to reach the last eight along with two other Indian pairs.
