Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy bowed out in the men’s doubles semifinals in Sydney. (Source: PTI Final) Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy bowed out in the men’s doubles semifinals in Sydney. (Source: PTI Final)

India’s challenge at the Australian Open Badminton Championship ended on Saturday with the lone team of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy bowing out in the men’s doubles in the semifinals. The Indian pairing went down to the top-seeded Indonesian team of Berry Angriawan and Hardianto Hardianto 17-21, 15-21.

In the contest that lasted 39 minutes, the third-seeded Attri and Reddy started decently by staying neck-to-neck with the Indonesian team. But they took the lead at 18-16 to bring up game point. Attri and Reddy saved one but couldn’t prolong the outcome to lose the opening game 17-21.

The second game was more uneven with Angriawan and Hardianto picking up six consecutive points at the start of the match to go 9-2 up at one stage. The Indians came back to reduce the deficit from 10-18 to 14-18 but once again despite saving one match point, the outcome seemed inevitable.

Despite the defeat, Attri and Reddy will move up into the World’s top-25 when the rankings are updated on Thursday. The Indian pair will take heart from this run in Sydney, being their first semi-final appearance of the year. More importantly, it comes before the Thomas and Uber Cup in Bangkok, Thailand later this year.

On Friday, fourth seed Sameer Verma was shocked by Chinese qualfier Lu Guangzu while second seed B Sai Praneeth was knocked out by Lee Cheuk Yiu in the men’s singles quarterfinals.

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