Rituparna guides Pune 7 Aces to PBL semifinals with 4-1 win over Awadhe Warriors
Rituparna Das stunned World No. 14 Beiwen Zhang in straight games as Pune 7 Aces beat Awadhe Warriors 4-1 to seal their semifinal berth at the fifth Premier Badminton League here on Monday.
The Aces are the third team to make it to the last four with Chennai Superstarz and North Eastern Warriors already sealing their respective berth.
Showing admirable composure, Rituparna, a former national champion, surged to a gritty 15-13, 15-12 win over the much-fancied Zhang of America in Warriors' Trump match at the GMC Balayogi Indoor Stadium here.
Commonwealth Games gold medallists Chris and Gabrielle Adcock then registered a 15-6, 15-9 win over Awadhe's Christinna Pedersen and Ivan Sozonov to put Pune 2-0 ahead.
Earlier, Pune's Hendra Setiawan and Chirag Shetty lost for the first time this season in a gruelling three-game encounter against Awadhe's World No. 24 pair of Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol.
Shetty and Setiawan had been on a four-match winning streak but it was snapped by a gutsy .