Ashmita, Aakarshi enter Senior National Badminton semis

Ashmita Chaliha and Aakarshi Kashyap entered the semi-finals of the Yonex Sunrise Senior National Badminton tournament with contrasting wins here on Sunday.

Aakarshi faced a touch challenge from Devika Sihag but won 13-21 21-13 21-13 in 55 minutes at the Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex. Aakarshi was joined in the last-four by Ashmita, who defeated Isharani Baruah 21-10 21-23 21-16.

Ira Sharma, who had knocked out eighth seed Aashi Rawat in the third round, went down fighting to third seed Adita Rao 21-16 21-15.

In the men's section, second seed Kidambi Srikanth and Maharashtra's Harsheel Dani entered the quarter-finals. Srikanth defeated Saneeth DS 21-15 21-20 and will face Kartikey Gulshan Kumar, who had defeated fifth seed Abhishek Saini in the second round.

Harsheel had a narrow 5-2 lead against Sai Charan Koya and he built on it to pocket the first game. He was leading 11-8 in the second game, but Sai bounced back to level the level scores at 18-18.

A couple of quick points at crucial junctures helped Sai stay in contention as he won the second game 21-18. But he couldn't repeat his performance in the decider as Harsheel won 21-14.

Maharashtra's Shruti Mundanda and Poorva Barve crashed out of the tournament, losing to Adita Rao and Akarshi respectively.