Australian Open: Manu-Sumeeth reach semis; Praneeth, Sameer ousted

Sydney May 11 (IANS) India s men s doubles duo of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy advanced to the semi-finals of the Australian Open badminton tournament while it was curtains for Sameer Verma and B. Sai Praneeth after losing their respective men s singles quarter-final matches here on Friday.

Second seed Praneeth fought hard for 43 minutes before going down in straight games 21-23 13-21 to Hong Kong s Yiu Lee Cheuk at Court 1 of the Quay Centre Olympic Park here.

Earlier No.4 seed Sameer failed to exert any pressure against unseeded Chinese Guangzu Lu who comfortably pocketed the encounter in straight games 21-14 21-6 in 34 minutes.

Meanwhile the men s doubles match witnessed a brilliant comeback from Manu and Sumeeth against compatriots Arjun M.R. and Ramchandran Shlok in the 51-minute quarter-final.

After going down 17-21 in the opening game Manu and Sumeeth kept their nerves to win the second game with a 21-19 margin before fending off the opponents in the decider with a close 21-18 margin.

--IANS
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