India’s Crasto-Ponnappa will play women’s doubles final today

Lucknow: The Indian women’s doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa will advance to the finals of their category during the ongoing Syed Modi International Badminton Tournament in Lucknow on Sunday.
Seventh seed Crasto-Ponnappa defeated compatriots Treasa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand to reach the quarters. In the semi-finals, they faced a very tough challenge in the form of Japanese top seeds Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota.

Both sides started the game strongly with Japan getting the better of India 11–10 in the first game. This was when Hirota collapsed on the court after injuring his knee. The shuttler received medical aid but could not move forward. Hence, they withdrew from the match and the place in the final was clinched by the Indians.

Crasto-Ponnappa will face another Japanese pair, Rin Iwanaga and Ki Nakanishi, in the title match. Iwanaga-Nakanishi defeated Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu of Australia to reach the final of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Super 300 tournament.
On the other hand, India’s campaign in the singles competition ended with world number 31 men’s shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat’s 21-18, 14-21, 17-21 defeat to Chi Yu Jen.

Rajawat showed great character by winning the first game after fighting off his opponent. But 48th-ranked Jane got the better of the Indian in the next two games and reached the final after a match that lasted 71 minutes.
The results of this tournament will count towards the qualifying rankings of players for the Paris 2024 Olympics and will end today.