Indian shuttler Kiran George moved into the finals of the Indonesia Masters 100 tournament after beating Tommy Sugiarto on Saturday. The 23-year-old needed only 51 minutes to beat his opponent 23-21, 16-21, 21-8 in the semis.
In the first game, both the players displayed aggression and played a lot of crisp shots. There wasn’t much to separate the two but George managed to win the first game. Come the second, the Indian looked to take the match away with scores locked at 15-9 in his favour. But from there on Sugiarto made a comeback and leveled the match at 1-1.
In the decider, George decimated his opponent after the scoreboard read 9-8. Such was his dominance that the Indonesian could not score any more points in the match.
The WR-50 player George, will now take on Japanese Koo Takahashi in the final on Sunday, and look to win his first title of 2023. Prior to this, George had beaten Panitchaphon Terraratsakul of Thailand 21-9, 21-19 in the quarterfinal. He is continuing his rich vein of form as he managed to finish in the top-four at the Thailand Open 500 as well. There he had beaten players of the caliber of Shi Yu Qi and Weng Hong Yang.
Not just that, he had a semis finish at the Maldives International Challenge as well. There he lost to Malaysian Soong Joo Ven.
Also Read: PV Sindhu seeks Prakash Padukone’s help ahead of Asian Games 2023
Also Read: Asian Games throwback with Jaspal Rana
Other Result
Other Indians in the fray, the women’s doubles team of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa lost their semis battle. They lost to the top-seeded local team of Lanny Tria Mayasari and Ribka Sugiarto. The Indians put up a strong fight but lost 22-20, 16-21, 13-21. In this tournament, they had beaten the third seeds Meilysa Trias and Rachel Allessya 14-21, 21-17, 21-11 in the quarter-finals.
Apart from that, India’s Mansi Singh had lost in the quarters against Chiu Pin-Chian of Chinese Taipei 16-21, 18-21. In the mixed doubles, the team of Sai Pratheek and Tanisha Crasto had also exited. They lost in the quarters to Wu Hsuan-Yi and Yang Chun Yun of Chinese Taipei.
Editors pick
