CHENNAI: Rakshitha Sree Ramraj won an all-Indian meeting against Taipei Open winner Tanvi Sharma in the ongoing Korea Masters at the Asan Yi Sun-sin Gymnasium in Asan to set up yet another all-Indian date in the semifinals against Ashmita Chaliha, who also pulled off an upset victory over No 1 seed Hina Akechi of Japan in the other match on Friday.
Rakshitha, who trains at the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad, lost the opening game before losing against Tanvi before staging a superb fightback to advance. The Coimbatore girl won 18-21, 21-19, 21-18 in 61 minutes.
Ashmita, meanwhile, had also scripted a win over Akechi in a similar fashion. The Assam girl had also conceded the opening game against Akechi before going on to win the next two games. The final scoreline read 20-22, 21-15, 21-19 in Ashmita's favour.
Ashmita and Rakshitha will now battle it out against each other for a spot in the women's singles final of the Super 300 meet. Kim Ga Ram of South Korea and fourth seed Han Qian Xi of China will lock horns in the other semifinal.
The men's semifinal between top seed Yudai Okimoto of Japan and Jason Gunawan of Hong Kong was also a thrilling tie with the former doing just about enough to edge the contest. Okimoto, who captured the Taipei Open title last Sunday, won 21-17, 15-21, 21-18 in 1 hour, 25 minutes.
Okimoto will take on Yoo Tae Bin of South Korea in the semis. In the other men's singles semifinal, Zhu Xuan Chen of China will face Cheam June Wei of Malaysia.
