Orleans Masters badminton: Saina, Ashwini-Sikki in semis (Round-up)

Orleans (France), March 26 : Indias fourth seed Saina Nehwal in womens singles and eighth-seeded womens doubles pair Ashwini Ponnappa and N.Sikki Reddy reached the semi-finals of the Orleans Masters Super 100 badminton tournament on Friday.

In a quarter-final match, Saina defeated Iris Wang of the USA 21-19, 17-21, 21-19 in 60 minutes.

She will now play unseeded Line Christophersen of Denmark in the semi-finals.Ashwini and Sikki beat Englands third seeds Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith 21-14, 21-18 42 minutes in the quarter-finals.

They will now face Thai top seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai in the semi-finals on Saturday.However, Indias Srikanth Kidambi lost to Frances Toma Junior Popov 19-21, 17-21 in a mens singles quarter-final match in 42 minutes and crashed out.In womens singles quarter-finals, Indias Ira Sharma lost to Denmarks Line 11-21, 8-21 in 23 minutes.The Dane will clash with another Indian in the semi-finals, Saina.

In mixed doubles quarter-finals, Indias Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponnappa beat Englands Max Flynn and Jessica Pugh 21-13, 21-18 in a mere 29 minutes to enter the semi-finals.Ashwini and Sikki raced to a 4-0 lead in the first game before their opponents scored four consecutive points to level the scores.

The two teams then went toe-to-toe until the score was eighth-all, after which Ashwini and Sikki won four consecutive points to lead 12-8.There was no turning back for the Indians after that as they maintained their dominance and took the game 21-14.

The second game was a far closer affair with the score at the interval reading 11-9 in the Indians favour.Ashwini and Sikki won another point after the restart after which Birch and Smith won three consecutive points to make it 12-12.

The two teams exchanged points after that until Ashwini and Sikki managed to take a two-point lead at 17-15.They maintained that position, and eventually took the second game 21-18.

The other Indian pair, Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnu Vardhan Goud Panjala, beat Frances Christo Popov and Toma Junior Popov 21-17, 10-21, 22-20 in an hour and three minutes.In the semi-finals, they now face Englands Callum Hemming and Steve Stallwood, who beat Indian seventh seeds M.R.Arjun and Dhruv Kapila in the quarter-finals on Friday.