All India Senior Ranking: Top seed Pratul Joshi battles hard to reach semi-finals

Men’s singles top seed Pratul Joshi overcame a stiff challenge from the 10th seeded Chirag Sen to advance to the semi-finals of the All India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament 2017 held at Guntur, Andhra Pradesh on Thursday. The 22-year-old battled hard for 1 hour 4 minutes to claim the 14-21, 21-18, 21-13 win in the quarter-finals.

Joshi next takes on the unseeded Mithun M for a place in the final. The latter upset the fifth seed Ansal Yadav 21-15, 21-17 in the last-eight clash.

The other semi-final will be contested between the fourth seeded Harshit Aggarwal and the unseeded Kiran George.

Aggarwal prevailed over Jagadeesh K 21-14, 22-20 to enter the semi-finals while George had to work extra hard to achieve the 21-12, 18-21, 23-21 upset victory over the sixth seeded Rahul Yadav Chittaboina.

Second seeded Kudaravalli registers comeback win

In women’s singles, the second seeded Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli came back from a game down to edge the unseeded Prashi Joshi 12-21, 21-16, 21-13 for a semi-final berth. Up next for the talented 19-year-old is the third seed Sai Uttejitha Rao, who emerged a 21-18, 24-22 winner over the seventh seeded Neha Pandit.

The other half of the draw will see the fourth seeded Anura Prabhudesai and the ninth seeded Mugdha Agrey locking horns for a spot in the summit clash.

Agrey stopped the run of the 12th seeded Vaidehi Choudhari, 21-11, 21-15 while Prabhudesai put on a show of guts and gumption for a 22-20, 10-21, 21-18 win over the fifth seeded Rasika Raje.

Multiple upsets in doubles

Day 5 of the tournament also witnessed some big upsets in the doubles section. The top seeded mixed doubles pair of Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan suffered a shock 10-21, 9-21 defeat to Shivam Sharma and Poorvisha S Ram in the quarter-finals.

Sharma and Ram will now meet fellow unseeded combine of Tarun K and Sanjana Santosh, who stunned the third seeds Balasubrahmanniyan NG and Agna Anto, 21-18, 21-13.

Shivam Sharma was a part of another big upset win. In the men’s doubles quarter-finals, he and Rohan Kapoor combined to outlast the top seeds Anil Kumar Raju M and Venkat Gaurav Prasad, 21-23, 21-14, 21-19 in a marathon 62-minute battle.