INDIA GPG 2015 SF – Another Indian teen goes for gold

Kukkapalli Maneesha became the only teen to reach the finals at the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships Grand Prix Gold as she and Manu Attri reached the mixed doubles final.  India has locked up the men’s singles title while Malaysia did the same in women’s doubles.

By Don Hearn.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (archives)

India came into semi-finals day at the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships with a chance at locking three titles and of placing their competitors in all five finals.  In the last match of the day, right after their last hopes had died in men’s and women’s doubles, Manu Attri and 19-year-old Kukkapalli Maneesha (pictured) won the battle with Russia’s 3^rd-seeded Evgenij Dremin and Evgenia Dimova to enter a Grand Prix Gold final for the first time in their career.

The Indians had already disposed of the second and seventh seeds and they had to save two game points in the first game but they silenced the Russians in two to become the only unseeded finalists for Sunday.  Manu had been unsuccessful in the first match of the afternoon, as he and B. Sumeeth Reddy yielded to fourth-seeded Russians Ivanov/Sozonov in two straight.  India’s chance at locking up the men’s doubles final was only theoretical, too, as the other semi-final saw former world #1 Boe/Mogensen put down Pranaav Jerry Chopra / Akshay Dewalkar in less than half an hour.

India did prevail over the Danish threat in men’s singles, however, as Parupalli Kashyap (pictured) eked out a match-saving second game then destroyed Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in the decider.  The Sunday matchup with world #4 Kidambi Srikanth is to be Kashyap’s first appearance in a final since the Commonwealth Games and his first in BWF ranking event since he won in 2012 at the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold.

India had a realistic chance at locking up the women’s singles title a day early as well but World Champion Carolina Marin would have none of it.  Like Kashyap, the Spaniard also reached her first final since last summer.  She beat last year’s runner-up P. V. Sindhu in straight games.

If Sindhu’s loss to Marin was always a danger, Indian fans were most likely counting on former Commonwealth Games champions Jwala Gutta / Ashwini Ponnappa to at least set up a rematch of last summer’s gold medal bout in Glasgow against Malaysia’s Hoo and Woon.  But that was not to be either, as another Malaysian pair, Amelia Alicia Anscelly / Soong Fie Cho (pictured bottom) fancied a spot in their first ever Grand Prix Gold final.

The Malaysians saw off the Indian favourites in the longest doubles match of the afternoon to earn their place in the final opposite their compatriots.  Hoo and Woon also needed nearly an hour to finish off U.S. Open runners-up Puttita Supajirakul / Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand.

Finals line-up
WD: Vivian Hoo / Woon Khe Wei (MAS) [1] vs. Amelia Alicia Anscelly / Soong Fie Cho (MAS) [4]
WS: Saina Nehwal (IND) [1] vs. Carolina Marin (ESP) [2]
MD: Mathias Boe / Carsten Mogensen (DEN) [1] vs. Vladimir Ivanov / Ivan Sozonov (RUS) [4]
MS: K. Srikanth (IND) [1] vs. Parupalli Kashyap (IND) [3]
XD: Riky Widianto / Puspita Richi Dili (INA) [1] vs. Manu Attri / K. Maneesha (IND)

Click here for complete semi-final results