Australian Open | Indian challenge ends as Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy lose in semis

05/12/2018

India’s campaign at the Australian Open ended in the men’s doubles semi-final as the pair of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy suffered defeat on Saturday. The third-seeded Indian pair fought hard against top-seed Indonesian pair Berry Angriawan and Hardianto Hardianto but went down 17-21, 15-21.

It was not going to be an easy encounter for the Indian duo against the experienced Indonesian pair, but the duo proved many people wrong by starting well and showed a lot of energy in the first game to keep the World No. 17 pair afloat right until the latter stages of the game. However, the Indian pair failed to finish off the rallies which hurt them in the end as they lost the first game 17-21.

But, the Indian pair’s impressive performance in the first game couldn’t last in the second game as they increasingly got tired and started committing a lot of unforced errors. Taking advantage of the same, the Indonesian duo kept the Indian pair moving on the court, especially along the baseline. The insane attack by the Indonesian duo was sufficient for the Indian pair to eventually running out of gas and they lost the game 15-21.

However, the defeat won’t stop the Indian pair from moving up into the top-25 in BWF doubles’ rankings when the ranking gets updated on Thursday.