Guwahati, Feb 15(UNI) Top seed PV Sindhu booked her berth in the finals, while defending champion Saina Nehwal and former winners Parupalli Kashyap and Sourabh Verma sailed through to the semis at the Yonex-Sunrise 83rd Senior National Badminton Championships 2018-19 here today.
Local girl Ashmita Chaliha, though lost her match to Sindhu, won hearts with her gutsy fightback.
The two-time champion Sindhu had to claw her way back from 16-19 down in the second game and needed two match points to douse the challenge of the spirited fourth seed Chaliha 21-10, 22-20.
The 19-year-old girl from Assam had already announced her arrival last year with BWF titles at the Dubai International Challenge and the Tata Open.

In the other semi-final matches of the day, Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg lived up to their reputation as the top seeds in mixed doubles.
The World No. 46 pair needed only 32 minutes to dispatch Vighnesh Devlekar and Harika V 21-15, 21-16 to enter the final.
They will take on the unseeded combine of Manu Attri and Maneesha K, who continued their rampage with a fine 21-18, 21-17 win over Shlok Ramchandran and Mithula UK.
In women’s doubles, top seeds Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram continued their quest for the title with a strong 21-13, 21-16 victory over Kuhoo Garg and Anoushka Parikh.
They will take on the unseeded Shikha Gautam and Ashwini Bhat K in the summit clash after the latter edged Aparna Balan and Sruthi KP 21-19, 24-22.
Men’s doubles second seeds Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Chirag Shetty beat Arun George and Sanyam Shukla 21-17, 21-18 to secure a place in the final.
Earlier in the day, the second seeded Nehwal was hardly ever tested in her 21-10, 21-10 victory over Maharashtra’s veteran shuttler Neha Pandit and needed just 24 minutes to complete the match.
Nehwal’s husband, Kashyap, the men’s singles third seed and 2012 winner, too was equally impressive in his 21-18, 21-16 win over 21-year-old Bodhit Joshi.

But the star of the day was former two-time champion Sourabh Verma.
Unseeded this time, the 26-year-old dropped a game but managed to dig deep to knock out the second seed and 2014 champion Sai Praneeth 21-11, 21-23, 21-18 in an absorbing clash that needed 1 hour 2 minutes to finish.
UNI SG AND