Hylo Open badminton: Srikanth, Treesa-Gayatri reach semis; Satwik-Chirag bow out

Saarbrucken (Germany), Nov 5 (IANS) Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth reached the semifinal of the Hylo Open 2022 BWF Super 300 tournament, beating Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in the men's singles quarterfinals, here on Friday.

The 29-year-old made a strong start against the seventh-ranked Indonesian by scoring nine of the last 11 points to win the first game. Jonatan, the 2018 Asian Games champion, made a late surge in the second game but the Indian shuttler managed to seal the match 21-13, 21-19 in 39 minutes.

World No.11 Srikanth will be up against fifth-seeded Anthony Ginting of Indonesia in the semifinals on Saturday. Ginting has won three of the five previous matches against Srikanth, the last time at the All-England Open in March.

On the other hand, the young women's doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand beat Chinese Taipei's Hsu Ya Ching and Lin Wan Ching in three games in the quarterfinals. After two close games, the Chinese Taipei team were unable to maintain the pressure in the decider as Jolly and Gopichand won 21-17, 18-21, 21-8.

The Commonwealth Games 2022 bronze medal-winning Indian pair will face eighth-seeded Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard of Thailand on Saturday.

However, the in-form Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, currently world No.8, lost their men's doubles quarterfinal match against England's seventh-seeded pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy. The Indian doubles duo went down 17-21, 14-21 and crashed out of the tournament.

In the women's singles, world No.39 Malvika Bansod, who beat Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour in the pre-quarterfinals, also lost to 21st-ranked Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia 17-21, 10-21 in the final eight in 33 minutes.