Guwahati Masters: Ashwini Ponnappa, Tanisha Crasto Pair Enter Final

The second seeded Indian combination, which finished runners-up at the Syed Modi International Super 300 tournament last week in Lucknow, beat third seeds Debora Jille and Cheryl Seinen of the Netherlands 21-12 21-12 in a 36-minute semifinal clash.

Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa will face the winner of the other semifinal between the Taiwanese pair of Sung Shuo Yun and Yu Chien Hui in the final on Sunday.

"We had decided to take an aggressive approach and we’re happy with the way we executed our game plan," Ashwini said.

Tanisha admitted that their bodies were feeling a bit tired after reaching their second straight final in two weeks. "But we are excited to reach the final and looking forward to winning the title," she said.

However, Malvika Bansod couldn't cross the semifinal hurdle in the women's singles. She found Thailand's Lalinrat Chaiwan too hot to handle, going down 12-21 14-21.

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Earlier, Tanisha and Dhruv Kapila lost 18-21 15-21 to second seeds Hee Yong Kai Terry and Tan Wei Han Jessica of Singapore in the last-four round of the mixed doubles event. Later, men's doubles pair of Hariharan Amsakarunan and Ruban Kumar Rethinasabapathi also failed to make it to the summit clash, going down 10-21, 19-21 to Chinese Taipei's Lin Bing-Wei and Su Ching Heng.?

Tanisha and Ashwini carried the momentum from Lucknow and overcame all the obstacles that came their way to go deep into the tournament. The semifinal started on an even keel before the Indians stepped up.

A 3-1 lead turned into 6-4 before the Indian duo grabbed a slender 11-10 advantage at the break. But things changed on resumption with Ashwini and Tanisha reeling off four points on the trot twice to leave their opponents far behind.

In the second game, Ashwini and Tanisha came out all guns blazing, galloping to 6-1 and then 11-4 lead at the interval.?

The Dutch duo found the gap too much to bridge as the Indians closed out the match comfortably.