New York, June 21 (IANS) Continuing their impressive run, Indian men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy advanced to the final, while singles shuttler B. Sai Praneeth and the women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost in the semi-finals of the $120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold here.
Manu-Sumeeth stunned Japanese fourth seeds Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda 21-17, 21-17 in 34 minutes in the semi-final at the Suffolk County Community College on Saturday. The Indian pair earlier defeated Japanese second seeds Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Noriyasu in the pre-quarter-finals.
They will now face China’s Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen, who moved past Japanese pair of Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi 21-17, 18-21, 21-11 in 49 minutes.
However, men’s singles 16th seed Sai lost to Malaysia’s former world No.1 Lee Chong Wei 9-21, 17-21 in 34 minutes. With this victory, two-time Olympics silver medallist Chong Wei took a 3-0 lead career meetings against national champion and world No.38 Sai.
For the title, Chong Wei, two-time silver medallist in World Championships, will face Danish third seed Hans-Kristian Vittinghus. World no.18 Vittinghus got the better of Chinese Taipei’s world No.7 and top seed Chou Tien Chen 12-21, 21-11, 21-13 in 51 minutes. Tien Chen will face Chong Wei for the first time in his professional career.
India suffered more agony as the 2011 World Championships bronze medal-winning pair of Jwala-Ashwini crashed out 17-21, 11-21 in 38 minutes against Japanese combine of Ayane Kurihara and Naru Shinoya.