Young shuttler Swetaparna Panda made Odisha proud when she became the first from the State to reach semifinals of a Badminton World Federation (BWF) Tour Super 100 Tournament today. Cuttack girl Swetaparna achieved the feat in mixed doubles event of the Odisha Open 2022 with Balkeshari Yadav her partner.

Swetaparna and Balkeshari beat Indian opponents Rahul Kumar Shah and Rudrani Jaiswal 21-12, 21-12 on the the fourth day of the first-ever international badminton tournament in Odisha at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Cuttack.

Semifinalists were also identified in mens singles and doubles, womens singles and doubes and mixed doubles events. In mens singles, Priyanshu Rajawat (India) defeated Mithun Manjunath (India) in a three-game thriller 13-21, 21-14, 21-8 to reach semifinals.

Kiran George (India) created an upset when he overcame third seed Shubhankar Dey (India) 21-16, 10-21, 21-19 in their quarterfinal clash. Other two mens singes semifinals berths were secured by Priyanshu Rajawat and Ansal Yadav with wins over Mithun Manjunath and Tharun Mannepalli respectively.

In womens singles, Malvika Bansod (India) prevailed over Tanya Hemanth, while Smit Toshniwal (India) defeated Ishika Jaiswal (USA) to reach the final four. Unnati Hooda and Ashmita Chaliha also won their respective quarterfinals matches to reach the semis.

Mens doubles witnessed a major upset when Krishna Prasad and Vishu Vardhan (India) went down against Sri Lankan pair of Sachin Dias and Buwaneka Goonethilleka. Treesa Jolly and Gayathri Gopichand (India) register a comfortable win to advance into the semis in womens doubles. Sanyogita Ghorpade and Shruti Mishra (India) also won their quarterfinal.
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PHOTO: Odisha girl Swetaparna Panda and her mixed doubles partner Balkeshari Yadav in action during their quarterfinal match at the Odisha Open in Cuttack on 28th January 2022.