India’s men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy advanced to the semifinals of the Australian Open badminton tournament while it was curtains for Sameer Verma and Sai Praneeth after they lost their respective singles quarterfinal matches here on Friday.Second seed Praneeth fought hard for 43 minutes before going down 21-23 13-21 to Hong Kong’s Yiu Lee Cheuk.Earlier, fourth seed Verma failed to exert any pressure on the unseeded China’s Guangzu Lu, who pocketed the match 21-14 21-6 in 34 minutes.
Meanwhile, the men’s doubles match witnessed a brilliant comeback from Attri and Reddy against compatriots Arjun MR and Ramchandran Shlok in the 51-minute quarterfinal. After going down 17-21 in the opening game, Attri and Reddy kept their nerves to win the second game 21-19 before fending off the opponents in the decider with a close 21-18 win.