Orleans (France): India's star doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy defeated third seeds Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith 21-14, 21-18 to reach the semifinal of the Orleans Masters Super 100 badminton tournament. The quarter-final match lasted for 42 minutes. The India pair will now face Thai top seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Ashwini and Sikki raced to a 4-0 lead in the first game before their opponents scored four consecutive points to level the scores. The two teams then went toe-to-toe until the score was eighth-all, after which Ashwini and Sikki won four consecutive points to lead 12-8. There was no turning back for the Indians after that as they maintained their dominance and took the game 21-14.
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The second game was a far closer affair with the score at the interval reading 11-9 in the Indians' favour. Ashwini and Sikki won another point after the restart after which Birch and Smith won three consecutive points to make it 12-12. The two teams exchanged points after that until Ashwini and Sikki managed to take a two-point lead at 17-15. They maintained that position, and eventually took the second game 21-18.