ssShreyanshi keeps alive Indian challenge in singles

Lowly-ranked Shreyanshi Pardeshi kept the Indian interest alive in the singles events by reaching the women's semi-finals of the USD 17,500 Tata Open India International Challenge badminton tournament here today.
On a day when the home country's challenge ended in men's singles with the elimination of second seed Siril Verma, Shreyanshi caused a major upset by knocking out her seventh seeded Indonesian rival Gabriela Meilani Moningka in three straight games in the quarter finals.
Eighteen-year-old Shreyanshi, ranked beyond 400, got past the 17-year-old 139th-ranked Indonesian girl 11-8 13-11 12-10 to advance to a meeting with fifth seeded Hui Zhen Grace Chua of Singapore tomorrow for a place in Sunday's final.

Shreyanshi is from Indore and is a trainee at the Hyderabad-based academy run by national coach P Gopichand.
However, another Indian girl, Ira Sharma, got eliminated as she lost to her fourth-seeded Malaysian rival Soniia Cheah in four games.
In men's, the story was dismal as not only Verma, but also three other promising youngsters - Kartikey Gulshan Kumar, Mithun Manjunath and Rahul Yadav got knocked out that left three Indonesian shuttlers in the last four stage.

Manjunath had toppled top seeded compatriot Pratul Joshi yesterday in the second round while Kumar had shut out fourth seed Yee Han Chong of Malaysia and Yadav ousted up and coming Lakshya Sen, a trainee at the Prakash Padukone academy.

Women's singles (Quarter finals): Shreyanshi Pardeshi (India) bt Gabriela Meilani Moningka [7] (Indonesia) 11-8 13-11 12-10; Hui Zhen Grace Chua [5] (Singapore) bt Yin Fun Lim [3] (Malaysia) 11-8 11-8 8-11 11-7; Soniia Cheah [4] (Malaysia) bt Ira Sharma (India) 11-6 11-8 7-11 13-11; Gregoria Mariska [6] Indonesia bt Ying Ying Lee [2] (Malaysia) 7-11 11-7 11-3 7-11 11-6.
Men's singles (Quarter finals): Panji Ahmad Maulana [8] (Indonesia) bt Mithun Manjunath (India) 11-6 15-14 7-11 6-11 11-7; Enzi Shafira (Indonesia) bt Kartikey Gulshan Kumar (India) 11-9 11-2 11-5; Lim Chi Wing [6] (Malaysia) bt Rahul Yadav (India) 11-1 11-6 11-6; Vega Vio Nirwanda [7] (Indonesia) bt Siril Verma [2] (India) 11-9 11-3 11-6.