French SS: Srikanth enters his 5th SS final beating Prannoy in SF; Sindhu ousted by Yamaguchi

KIDAMBI SRIKANTH defeated HS Prannoy 14-21, 21-19, 21-18 to enter his fifth Super Series final in the semi-finals of French SS.

Prannoy was playing his first SS semi-final proved his worth as he put up a tough fight against the man in form and his compatriot Srikanth. From the get go, Prannoy looked in great shape as he maintained a comfortable lead. And that helped him take the first game.

Though the start of the second game was neck-to-neck, Prannoy looked stronger post interval keeping the lead but Srikanth was quick to fight back trying his best to remain alive in the match.

Srikanth taking advantage of Prannoy's mistakes enables him to clinch the second game and push the match into a decider. Agony for Prannoy while the Indian badminton fans thrilled to have seen fight from both the shuttlers.

The final game saw similar kind of fight but post interval Prannoy was in a good position and he was almost there into the finals, leading but Srikanth once again jumping onto his compatriot's mistakes snatched away the match in his favour to enter the 5th SS final of the year. Prannoy has no one but him to blame for this loss. But undoubtedly this was one of the best performances from Prannoy this year.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, PV Sindhu reaching her first ever semi-finals of French Super Series had a tough job ahead as she was up against 5th seed Akane Yamaguchi. And the Japanese won it comfortably 21-14, 21-9 to reach the finals.

It was a tight start to the first game as both fighting hard to win the game. But the fight from Sindhu was only until 14 points as post that the Japanese took the remaining seven points consecutively to take the opening game to her name.

While the second game saw Sindhu committing too many errors which put Yamaguchi in a comfortable position with a massive lead. A difference of 8-9 points was maintained till the end of the match by the 5th seed. Though Sindhu tried hitting back it was too late as the damage was already done. The second game loss meant that a maiden French SS final yet to be fulfilled by Sindhu.

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