Lucknow, 29 November. The pair of former champion Kidambi Srikanth and defending champions Trisa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand registered victories in contrasting fashion and reached the men’s singles and women’s doubles finals respectively of the Syed Modi International Super 300 Badminton Tournament here on Saturday.

Srikanth defeated compatriot Mithun Manjunathan in a tough fight

32-year-old former world number one Srikanth, who had won this title in 2016, defeated compatriot and 2023 national champion Mithun Manjunathan 21-15, 19-21, 21-13 in a tough semi-final that lasted 59 minutes on court number two of the BBD UP Badminton Academy.

Kidambi will meet Jason Gunawan of Hong Kong

World Championship 2021 silver medalist and fifth seed Srikanth will now face Jason Gunawan of Hong Kong in the final. World number 59 Gunawan was leading 12-21, 21-8, 11-0 against Japan’s Minoru Koga in the final match of the day played on court number one, when Koga left the court due to injury.

Gayatri and Trisa defeated Malaysian team in straight games

Before the victory of world number 38 Srikanth, world number 14 pair of Trisa and Gayatri entered the final by defeating world number 33 Malaysian pair of Ong Shin Yi and Carmen Ting 21-11, 21-15 in straight games.

Top seeds Gayatri and Trisa, playing in their second competition after being out of action for five months due to a shoulder injury, will try to defend their title in the final on Sunday against Japan’s eighth seeded pair of Kaho Osawa and Mai Tanabe.

Host challenge ends due to defeat of Unnati and Tanvi in ​​women’s singles

Meanwhile, India’s campaign in women’s singles ended in the semi-finals when both Unnati Hooda and Tanvi Sharma suffered straight game defeats. Unnati lost 15-21, 10-21 against Turkey’s Neslihan Erin while Tanvi lost 17-21, 16-21 against Japan’s Hina Akechi.

Hariharan and Trisa team lost in mixed doubles

Earlier, the mixed doubles pair of Hariharan Amsakarunan and Trisa crashed out of the competition after losing 17-21, 19-21 against Indonesia’s Dejan Ferdinandsyah and Bernadine Anindya Wardana.