Sports
Pranaav-Sikki lose in Japan Open semis (Lead)
Tokyo, Sep 23 (IANS) India’s mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N. Sikki Reddy lost in the semi-finals of the $325,000 Japan Open Superseries badminton championships here on Saturday.
The Indian pair lost 21-14, 15-21, 19-21 in 59 minutes to Japanese qualifiers Takuro Hoki and Sayaka Hirota.
Hoki-Hirota will battle Chinese pair of Wang Yilv and Huang Dongpin in the final on Sunday.
The performance of Pranaav and Sikki was the only positive for India in Tokyo as Olympic silver medallists P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal fell in the second round on Thursday while the likes of Kidambi Srikanth and H.S. Prannoy were defeated in the quarter-finals.
Parupalli Kashyap had failed to qualify for the main draw on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the men’s singles final will be fought between Malaysian veteran Lee Chong Wei and Denmark’s reigning world champion Viktor Axelsen.
Chong Wei moved past Chinese second seed Shi Yuqi with a 21-19, 21-8 win in 39 minutes, while Axelsen brushed aside South Korean top seed 21-16, 21-16 in 46 minutes.
Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain reached the women’s singles final as she got a walkover from recently crowned world champion and local favourite Nozomi Okuhara. The Japanese had fitness issues.
Marin will face defending champion He Bingjiao of China. The sixth seeded Chinese defeated compatriot Chen Yufei 21-14, 25-23 in 53 minutes.
“Marin is an excellent player. She is always relentless, no matter in good or bad conditions…She is very good at attacking. I will try to do my best in defence on Sunday,” Bingjiao was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.
–IANS
pur/bg
The left-handed batsman from Haryana is garnering praise from all quarters for the way he’s finishing games regularly in the most exciting IPL season.
Gavaskar reckons Tewatia’s whirlwind knock in Sharjah (in IPL 2020) where he smashed West Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over, gave him the confidence that he belongs to the big stage.
Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “That assault on Sheldon Cottrell in Sharjah gave him the belief to do the impossible and the confidence that he belongs here. We saw the impossible (he did with the bat) the other day as well. There’s no twitching or touching the pads (which shows a batter’s nervousness) when he bats in the death overs. He just waits for the ball to be delivered and plays his shots. He’s got all the shots in the book, but most importantly his temperament to stay cool in a crisis is brilliant.”
Gavaskar has also nicknamed the 28-year-old cricketer the ‘ice-man’ and lauded Tewatia’s ability to remain unruffled during the tense moments.
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