Unseeded Alamsyah Yunus of Indonesia rallied from a game down to inflict a shocking 16-21, 21-12, 21-13 defeat on top seed Chetan Anand in the semifinal of the Yonex-Sunrise Indian Open Grand Prix Gold 2010 badminton championship at the Nehru indoor stadium on Saturday.
In the women’s section, top seed Saina Nehwal (India) played her toughest match in the tournament so far to register a 21-17, 21-11 win against Indonesian Aprilia Yuswandari. Saina will meet No. 2 seed Mew Choo Wong of Malaysia in the final.
In the opening game, Saina was kept on her toes by Aprilia who kept mixing her drop shots and smashes to perfection. Aprilia, at one point, was leading 13-12 before Saina regained the lead. The Hyderabadi lass reached her game point after an astonishing long rally which had the crowd in raptures. A next point — a well-deceived drop shot — which gave Saina the game, was even better.
Saina, in the second game, came out firing in all cylinders and churned out a couple of ferocious smashes to run away to a 11-4 lead. Aprilia’s game, too, went downhill as the champion shuttler grew in confidence.
Results:
Singles: Men: Alamsyah Yunus (Indo) bt B. Chetan Anand (1, Ind) 16-21, 21-12, 21-13; R.M.V. Gurusaidutt (7, Ind) bt P. Kashyap (3, Ind) 21-6, 17-21, 21-15. Women: Mew Choo Wong (2, Malay) bt Linda Weni Fanetri (Indo) 22-20, 21-17; Saina Nehwal (1, Ind) bt Aprilia Yuswandari (Indo) 21-17, 21-11. Mixed: Jwala Gutta/Diju Valiyanti (1, Ind) bt Debby Susanto/Mohd. Rijal (Indo) 21-7, 21-10; Lei Yao/Chayut Triyachart (Sing) bt Jenna Gozali/Riky Widianto (Indo) 17-21, 21-16, 21-13.