by Simon Daish
Amalraj Anthony and Sanil Shetty were one of the Indian pairings to successfully progress from the quarter-finals of the Men’s Doubles tournament, as the fourth seeds saw off the host nation’s Teodor Alexandrov and Denislav Kodjabashev.
The match was decided in three games with Amalraj Anthony and Sanil Shetty cruising to a relatively straightforward victory (11-8, 11-9, 11-4), leaving the home crowd disappointed with the exit of the Bulgarian duo.
There was yet more joy for India right at the bottom of the draw as Soumyajit Ghosh and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran came through their quarter-finals tie over five games.
Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yun-Ju and Yang Heng-Wei looked on course to progress from the match after establishing a commanding two games to nil lead over the Indian pair, but Soumyajit Ghosh and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran refused to give up the fight and responded with three consecutive game wins to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat (11-5, 11-8, 9-11, 4-11, 7-11).
The top half of the draw produced victories for the first and sixth seeded combinations, sealing semi-finals positions for Japan and Hungary.
Jin Ueda and Maharu Yoshimura entered the event as the top seeds and the Japanese pairing continued to demonstrate their strength with a fine effort against fellow countrymen Yuto Kizukuri and Kenta Matsudaira (13-11, 11-8, 11-6).
Hungary’s Nandor Ecseki and Adam Szudi registered somewhat of an upset win, defeating the number three seeds Robin Devos and Cedric Nuytinck of Belgium (13-11, 11-9, 11-8) to set up a fixture against the top seeds Jin Ueda and Maharu Yoshimura in the last four.
