Sridhar, Gupta to meet in final

Giant-killer Anup Sridhar of Karnataka and top seed Abhinn Shyam Gupta of Petroleum Sports Control Board will clash in the Rs 400,000 NSCI Senior ranking badminton tournament on Friday.

In the semi-finals in Mumbai on Thursday, the Karnataka lad, who had accounted for third seed Sachin Ratti of Railways in the quarter-finals yesterday, sidelined international Nikhil Kanetkar of PSCB 15-4, 15-10 while Gupta was fully stretched by Railways' youngster J B S Vidhyadhar before carving out a 15-11, 7-15, 15-13 victory.

In the women's semi-finals, top seed B R Meenakshi of PSCB crushed former national champion and teammate Manjusha Kanwar 11-7, 11-3 while second seed Shruti Kurien of PSCB stopped giant-killer Saina Nehwal's (Andhra Pradesh) fine run with a 11-8, 11-0 win.

International Aparna Popat of PSCB, who is playing only in the doubles, made it to the doubles final. Popat and her partner, Oli Deka of Assam, drubbed Aparna Balan of Kerala and Dhanya Nair of Maharashtra 15-0, 15-6 in the semi-finals.

Results (men's singles) semi-finals: Abhinn Shyam Gupta (PSCB) bt J B S Vidhyadhar (Rlys) 15-11, 7-15, 15-13; Anup Sridhar (Knt) bt Nikhil Kanetkar (PSCB) 15-4, 15-10.

Women's singles (semi-finals): B R Meenakshi (PSCB) bt Manjusha Kanwar (PSCB) 11-7, 11-3; Shruti Kurien (PSCB) bt Saina Nehwal (AP) 11-8, 11-0.