B Sai Praneeth crowned the champion of Singapore Open
B Sai Praneeth defeated Kidambi Srikanth in the Singapore Open final to claim his maiden Superseries title. Staging a comeback from a game down, the 24-year-old shuttler from Hyderabad beat his friend and regular training partner Srikanth 17-21, 21-17, 21-12, in a 55-minute long engaging encounter. This is Praneeth's second big tournament victory, the only other being the 2016 Canada Open Grand Prix.
Singapore Open is an annual badminton tournament which began in 1987. A part of the BWF (Badminton World Federation) Superseries, it is played at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The reigning Singles champions are - Sony Dwi Kuncoro (MS), and Ratchanok Intanon (WS). The 2017 Singapore open was scheduled to be played from 11-16 April. It has a total prize money of $350,000.
Indian players at Singapore Open - Women's Singles: PV Sindhu, Rituparna Das; Men's Singles: B Sai Praneeth, Sameer Verma, Sourabh Verma, Ajay Jayaram, Srikanth Kidambi. Manu Attri/B Sumeeth Reddy, Arjun MR/Ramachandran Shlok - Men's Doubles; Sanjana Santosh/Arathi Sara Sunil, Ashwini Ponnapaa/ N Sikki Reddy, Meghana Jakkampudi/ Poorvisha S Ram - Women's Doubles; Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/K Maneesha, Summeth Reddy/Ashwini Ponnapaa, VG Prasad/J Dewangan - Mixed Doubles.
Saina Nehwal who withdrew from the 2017 edition of Singapore Open, is the only Indian player to have won the tournament in 2010.
B Sai Praneeth reached the Semi-finals of Men's Singles at the Singapore Open upsetting Thailand's Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk. The Indian shuttler ranked World No. 30 beat the eighth seed 15-2, 21-14, 21-19, in a gruelling quarterfinal match that lasted about 70 minutes. This is Praneeth's first Semis at a Superseries tournament. He will now face South Korea's Lee Dong-Keun in the Semis.
India's top seed and Olympic silver medallist Pusarla Venkata Sindhu crashed out of the ongoing Singapore Open Superseries losing to her Spanish rival Carolina Marin in the quarterfinals. Marin with her dominating game raced away to victory beating Sindhu, 21-11, 21-15, in a mere 30-min long match. The Spaniard will now meet South Korea's Sung Ji Hyun in the Semi-finals.
Kidambi Srikanth defeated Indonesia's Sinisuka Ginting 21-13, 21-14, in the Semis to set up an all-Indian Singapore Open final against B Sai Praneeth. Earlier, Sai Praneeth thrashed Korea's Lee Dong Keun 21-6, 21-8, to reach his first Superseries final. Praneeth, interestingly, has 4-1 head-to-head record against his more illustrious compatriot Srikanth, who won the 2014 China Superseries Premier, and 2015 India Superseries.
