Jonathan defeats Sai Praneeth in Semi-Finals at New Zealand Open 2018

B Sai Praneeth acceded to a hard fought loss in the semi-finals match that lasted for one hour against the second seeded Jonathan Christie at the New Zealand Open Men’s Singles event in Auckland on Saturday.

Sai Praneeth, who was the only Indian at the tournament, lost with 21-14, 19-21, 8-21 against the Indonesian player.

The third seeded Indian won the first game comfortably, winning 6 straight points in the middle of the game to read the score 13-6 to his favour, and went on to seal the game.

The second game was in his dominance till 9-3, from where Jonathan cruised with his skills and scored 4 consecutive points, yet trailed, with 9-7. By the breather, Praneeth was able to score another point before Jonathan, yet, scored another four points to lead with 11-10.

After the half time, the second game witnessed the battle of leads between the players. The game went neck-to-neck till it reached the pinnacle point with 19-19. It was Jonathan this time, who saved the game and pushed the match into the decider.

Third game was absolutely dominating by Jonathan who cruised comfortably, without looking back. On the other side, Praneeth didn’t appear like to get going and lost the game with 8-21.

Jonathan will face either the top seeded Lin Dan of China or Kwang Hee Heo of Korea in the finals on Sunday.