Prannoy to meet Gurusaidutt in men's final at badminton event

Top seed H S Prannoy and fourth seed R M V Gurusaidutt entered the men's singles final of the Tata Open India International Challenge badminton tournament with straight-game semi-final victories here today.
Prannoy subdued sixth seed Ajay Jayaram 21-13 23-21 in 36 minutes after staving off the fightback from the latter, who had packed off third seed B Sai Praneesh in the quarter finals, at the Cricket Club of India.
Later Gurusaidutt overwhelmed unseeded Akshit Mahajan, conqueror of second seed Sourabh Varma in the quarters, 21-11 21-11 in the other semi-final. The final is to be held tomorrow.
In women's singles, unseeded Ruthvika Shivani Gadde toppled third seed Salil Rane in straight games to enter the final.

The 17-year-old Ruthvika, an up and coming trainee at the Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad and runner-up at the last junior nationals, disposed off her rival 21-19 21-18 in 35 minutes.
The Vijayawada-born B Com student at St Anne's College in Hyderabad would meet reigning National Games champion and fourth seed Arundhati Pantawane in tomorrow's final.

Arundhati, who also trains at the academy of India's national badminton coach and is on a comeback trail after a four-month injury-forced lay-off, got the better of top seed P C Thulasi 21-9 21-15 in the other semi-final.
"I was about to go for the Uber Cup (held in New Delhi in May) when I tore a muscle in my shoulder and was off badminton for three months before starting my training in August. I'm fine now and attacked more against Thulasi," said Arundhati, employed as finance and accounts officer in ONGC.

Other results (semi-finals): Women's doubles: J Meghana/K Maneesha beat 2-Dhanya Nair/Mohita Sachdev 21-15 21-15; Aparna Balan/Prajakta Sawant beat Shruti Mundada/Riya Pillai 21-12 21-12.
Men's doubles: Shlok Ramachandran/Sanyam Shukla beat K Nandagopal/Arjun Kumar Reddy 21-11 21-17.
Mixed doubles: 3-Manu Attri/N Sikki Reddy beat Shlok Ramachandran/J Meghana 21-18 21-13.