Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, June 9:

Sumina Shrestha became the lone player remaining from the home side in the Nepal Asian Satellite Badminton Championship, which has been organised by Nepal Badminton Association under the sponsorship of Samsung, here today. Sumina entered the women’s semi-finals with a hard-fought three-set win over Dulai Hulder of Bangladesh. Sumina stated well, and managed a 8-3 lead in the first set, but the over confident shuttler blew away the advantage and eventually lost the set 8-11. She came back strongly in the second set and levelled the scores at one-all by capturing the set 11-3. Sumina gave no chance to her Bangladeshi opponent in the third set and won the set 11-4 and advanced to the last four. “My opponent was not tough, but I lost the first set because of my over confidence despite taking a comfortable lead,” said Sumina, who will face Sri Lanka’s Thilini Jayasinghe in the semi-final. “My opponent in the semi-final is very tough, so I will have to work hard for that match,” she added.

Other two local players lost in the same category. Puja Shrestha was totally outplayed by Renu Chandrika De Silva of Sri Lanka 1-11, 4-11, while Saradevi Tamang put some resistance but was not enough as she went down 6-11, 5-11 to Sri Lankan Thilini Jayasinghe. In the other match, Konica Rani Adhikari of Bangladesh beat Sara Khan of Pakistan 11-5, 4-11, 11-5 to advance to the semi-finals. Nepal’s hopes were further dashed when all the men’s singles section shuttlers failed to advance to the semi-finals. Nepal’s top-seed Pashupati

Paneru lost to Pakistan’s Ahsan Qamar 9-15, 7-15, while Pakistan’s top seed Ali Wajid downed

Anil Lakhe 15-7, 15-2. In other quarter-final matches, Ahmed Waqar of Pakistan defeated India’s Utsav Mishra 15-2, 17-14; and Sri Lanka’s Thushara Ediresinghe defeated another Indian Santosh Pandey 15-4, 15-7. Earlier, the Nepali duo of Indra Maheta and Puja Shrestha lost to Sri Lankan pair of Thushar Edirisinghe and Renu Chandrika De Silva 1-15, 1-15 in mixed doubles semi-finals, setting a all-Sri Lankan final. In other match, Sri Lanka’s Dumida Jayakody and Thilini Jayasinghe advanced to the final with a 15-6, 15-11 win over Ahsan Qamar and Sara Khan.