Indian shuttlers Anand Pawar and P C Thulasi made it to the men's and women's singles finals of the Sri Lanka Open International Badminton Challenge here today.
Second seed Pawar beat 16th seed local challenger Dinuka Karunaratna 21-12 15-21 21-11 in a 50-minute men's singles semifinal contest. But top seed Prannoy lost to unseeded Hyun Il Lee of Korea 10-21 21-16 13-21 in another semifinal contest to dash the hopes of an all-Indian final contest tomorrow.
Earlier in the day, Pawar thrashed Denmark's Christian Lind Thomsen 21-14 21-13 in a quarterfinal match that lasted 36 minutes. Prannoy had prevailed over compatriot Anup Sridhar, seeded 13th, with the latter retiring midway in the second game when he was trailing 13-21 4-13 in another quarterfinals match.
Meanwhile, sixth seeded Thulasi reached the final in women's section after beating Thailand's Supanida Katethong 21-13 21-8. Thulashi will take on fourth seed Jiayuan Chen of Singapore in the final.
Second seeded Indian pair of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy B defeated Chinese Taipei's Hsuan Wen Chang and Shang Kai Lin 21-12 18-21 21-13 in a 55-minute clash to set up a summit clash with Singapore's Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Chayut Triyachart.
In the mixed doubles competition, fourth seeded pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Pradnya Gadre will meet Indo-Malaysian combo of Prajakta Sawant and Vountus Indra Mawan.
While Akshay and Pradnya defeated compatriots Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan, seeded second, 30-28 21-11, Prajakta and Vountus brushed aside Singapore pair of Kean Hean Loh and Dellis Yuliana 21-10 21-9.
Sikki Reddy and Pradnya also set up a final fight against Thailand pair of Phataimas Muenwong and Kilasu Ostermeyer in the women's doubles.
Sikki and Pradnya edged out another Thailand pair of Jongkonphan Kittiharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai 22-24 21-17 21-18 in a semifinal match that lasted for 54 minutes.
However, it was curtains for Aditya Prakash as he fought hard before going down 21-13 15-21 18-21 to Karunaratna in a 55-minute match.
