Indian mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy lost to Denmark's Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen in the semifinals of the USD 350,000 India Open Super 500 tournament, here today.
Eighth seeded Indian pair, who had reached the semifinals of the Japan Open last year, went down fighting 16-21 19-21 against the fifth seeded Danish pair, who reached the finals at China Open and Hong Kong Open after starting as a pair at the Denmark Open last year.
Among others, world no 11 American Beiwen Zhang entered the finals after ekeing out a 14-21 21-12 21-19 win over Hong Kong's sixth seeded Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong in womens singles.
Zhang, who is a 2016 French Open runners-up, awaits the winner of the match between Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu and Thailand's Ratchanok Inthanon at the summit clash.
All England Championships finalist Shi Yuqi of China set up an exciting men's singles summit clash with world no 7 Taiwanese Chou Tien Chen, who had also reached the finals last year at India Open Super Series.
Third seed Chen notched up a hard-fought 23-21 21-16 win over China's Qiao Bin, who is a winner of 2016 Korea Open, in the first semifinals.
Yuqi then survived a tough battle against Iskandar Zulkarnain, prevailing 18-21 21-10 21-19 over the Malaysian qualifier in a pulsating contest.
Olympic silver medallists and top seeds Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen were stunned by third seeds Indonesian pair of Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu 21-14 19 -21 21-18 early in the day.
It was an exciting match as Pranaav and Sikki took on fast-rising pair of Mathias and Christinna. The Danish combo zoomed to a 8-3 lead but the Indian duo narrowed the deficit to 9-11 at the breather.
After the interval, Sikkis return found their rivals napping as they clawed back at 12-12. However, Mathias and Christinna managed to move to a 19-15 lead before sealing the opening game when Pranaavs return went to net.
Both the pairs started the second game on a even knell as they split the initial 10 points before Mathias and Christinna entered the break at 11-8 after Mathais produced a tap at the net.
The Indian pair kept breathing down their rivals neck, moving 10-12 and 12-13 before Sikki unleashed a smash to level par. Mathais and Christinna moved ahead again before India won a video referrel to make it 15-15.
They moved together 18-18 before Pranaav made a service errors and then his return got buried at the net as the Danish duo had two match points. But they hit out next before Pranaav sent the shuttle out to end their campaign.
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