Prannoy, Srikanth reach semis in PSPB Inter Unit tournament

New Delhi: Japan Open quarter-finalists H S Prannoy and K Srikanth continued their rampaging run, reaching the semifinals of the men's singles competition on the third day of the 35th PSPB Inter Unit Badminton Tournament, which witnessed some exciting matches here today.Fifth seed Prannoy, who had notched up victories against two top-15 players -- Denmark's Jan Jorgensen and Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong in the Japan Open, was in full flow when he defeated the fourth seeded Shreeyansh Jaiswal 19-21 21-14 21-15 in a close quarterfinal contest.Srikanth also continued his good form that started with the Indian Badminton League, registering a 21-15 21-6 win over unseeded Tarun Kona, who pairs up with Ashwini Ponnappa in mixed doubles event in international circuit.Tarun played well to defeat seventh seeded and former National champion Arvind Bhat 20-22 21-11 21-13 in quarters.In another closely contested pre-quarters, Chetan Anand beat Daniel Farid 21-14 21-23 21-15 and reached the semifinals after Sai Praneeth gave him a walkover in the quarters.The fourth semifinalist is third seed Sourabh Verma, who beat sixth seed Subhankar Dey 21-12 21-19.Chetan will take on Saurabh, while Prannoy will go up against Srikanth in the semifinals tomorrow.In the women's singles, top seed Arundhati Panthawane had a comfortable win over Maya Dasrat 21-10 21-10, while fourth seeded Trupti Murgunde lost to a fighting Riya Pillai 13-21 17-21.Arundhati will take on Riya tomorrow in last four. The other two seeds, P C Thulasi (3) and Tanvi Lad (2) won their matches comfortably to set up a semifinal clash.In the men's doubles quarter-finals, the top-seeded pair of Pranaav Chopra and Tarun Kona defeated Bijon Bannerjee and Amitabh Goswami 21-0 21-9.In the second quarter finals, Hema Nagendre Babu and Santhosh Ravuri defeated fourth seeded Arsalan and Daniel Farid 21-11 21-13.In women's doubles, Arathi Sara Sunil and Ashwani Ponnappa will take on top seeds Aparna Balan and Prajakta Sawant in the finals.