Syed Modi India International: Sindhu, Lakshya reach final with comfortable wins

Indian shuttlers had an outstanding outing in the Syed Modi India International, a BWF World Tour Super 300 tournament, at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium in Lucknow on Saturday.

After gritty performances in the semifinal, India shuttlers confirmed their places in the final of all five categories. The finals will take place on Sunday, starting with the mixed doubles final at 12:00 PM IST.

The day started with the top-seeded PV Sindhu making the light work of the youngster Unnati Hooda in the all-Indian semifinal of the women's singles category.

Sindhu registered a comfortable straight-game (21-12, 21-9) victory against Unnati, who had no answer to Sindhu's aggressive gameplay and suffered a heavy defeat, winning just 21 points throughout the match.

In the final, Sindhu will take on the Chinese player Wu Luo Yu, who made an upset, knocking out the higher-ranked Lalinrat Chaiwan of Thailand in her semi-final match.

This is Sindhu's first final appearance since she made a runner-up finish at the Malaysia Masters in May this year. Sindhu last won a BWF World Tour in 2022 at the Singapore Open.

An easy win for Lakshya Sen

In men's singles, Lakshya Sen registered a much more comfortable win in the semifinal as Shogo Ogawa of Japan could not offer much challenge to the top-seeded Indian and lost the match in straight games (8-21, 14-21).

Lakshya will face Jia Teh of Singapore in the final on Sunday, chasing his first BWF World Tour title since July 2023 when he won the Canada Open. Jia showed good form in this tournament, coming in after upsetting second-seeded Priyanshu Rajawat in the semifinal.

Treesa-Gayatri through to the final

Meanwhile, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will spearhead the Indian challenge in the women's doubles final as the duo triumphed over their Thai opponents with a thrilling (18-21, 21-18, 21-10) win in the semifinal.

In the final, they will take on the Chinese pair Bao Li Jing and Li Qian, who made an impressive comeback to register a big win against the top-seeded Indian pairing of Ashwini Ponappa and Tanisha Crasto in the semifinal.

On the other hand, the Indian pair of Pruthvi Krishnamurthy and Sai Pratheek in men's doubles and the pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto in mixed doubles will also fight for the titles in their respective finals.