Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy’s dream run ended as they lost in the finals to the Chinese pair of Li/Lu in straight sets 12-21,16-21 at US Open Grand Prix Gold at New York in the morning of Monday. It was not a good performance by the Indian pair as they lost to a much stronger Chinese opponent.
In the first game the Indian pair started off with a 3-0 lead and continued to lead maintaining it for a while. The Chinese pair made a good comeback and leveled the things at 8-8. At the changeover the Chinese pair led 11-8. After the changeover the Chinese pair never allowed the Indians to make a comeback and won the first set 21-12.
In the second game the Chinese pair started off well taking a 2-0 lead. The Indian pair leveled the score 2-2 and then took 4 successive points to take a lead of 6-2. The Chinese pair equaled the things at 6-6 and then 8-8. The Chinese pair led at the changeover 11-8. The Chinese pair was quick enough to put pressure on the Indian pair and took a commanding 17-9 lead. Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy tried to make a comeback and the gap of 9 points was too much for the Indian pair to cover. The Chinese pair took the second game 21-16.
The Indian men’s pair played some excellent badminton in the tournament but they could not capitalize in the final. Nonetheless it was credible performance by the Indian double’s pair which was not expected to reach such far in the tournament.
The other Indian shuttler’s performed reasonably well with Jwala Gutta/Ponappa and Sai Praneeth reaching the semi final of this tournament.