Pranaav-Sikki lose in semifinals of India Open. Sindhu will face Beiwen Zhang.
Indian shuttler PV Sindhu reached the final of Indian Open after beating Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon by 21-13, 21-15 on Saturday in New Delhi.
Defending champion Sindhu will now face World number 11 American Beiwen Zhang in the final.
"I didn't take it easy. There were long rallies in both the games. Even though I took a 13-5 lead in the opening game, Intanon was slowly coming back. Each point mattered for both of us," said Sindhu after winning her game.
Beiwen Zhang, who is a 2016 French Open runners-up entered the finals after eking out a 14-21 21-12 21-19 win over Hong Kong's sixth-seeded Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong in women's singles.
Indian mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy lost to Denmark's Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen in the semifinals of the USD 350,000 India Open Super 500 tournament, here today.
Eighth-seeded Indian pair, who had reached the semifinals of the Japan Open last year, went down fighting 16-21 19-21 against the fifth-seeded Danish pair, who reached the finals at China Open and Hong Kong Open after starting as a pair at the Denmark Open last year.
All England Championships finalist Shi Yuqi of China set up an exciting men's singles summit clash with world no 7 Taiwanese Chou Tien Chen, who had also reached the finals last year at India Open Super Series.
Third seed Chen notched up a hard-fought 23-21 21-16 win over China's Qiao Bin, who is a winner of 2016 Korea Open, in the first semifinals.
Yuqi then survived a tough battle against Iskandar Zulkarnain, prevailing 18-21 21-10 21-19 over the Malaysian qualifier in a pulsating contest.
Olympic silver medallists and top seeds Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen were stunned by third seeds Indonesian pair of Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu 21-14 19 -21 21-18 early in the day.
It was an exciting match as Pranaav and Sikki took on a fast-rising pair of Mathias and Christinna. The Danish combo zoomed to an 8-3 lead but the Indian duo narrowed the deficit to 9-11 at the breather.
After the interval, Sikki s return found their rivals napping as they clawed back at 12-12. However, Mathias and Christinna managed to move to a 19-15 lead before sealing the opening game when Pranaav s return went to net.
Both the pairs started the second game on an even knell as they split the initial 10 points before Mathias and Christinna entered the break at 11-8 after Mathais produced a tap at the net.
The Indian pair kept breathing down their rivals neck, moving 10-12 and 12-13 before Sikki unleashed a smash to level par. Mathais and Christinna moved ahead again before India won a video referral to make it 15-15.
They moved together 18-18 before Pranaav made a service error and then his return got buried at the net as the Danish duo had two match points. But they hit out next before Pranaav sent the shuttle out to end their campaign.
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