In a keenly contested semi-final match of the 29th Petroleum inter-unit badminton tournament Ravider Singh’s valiant last-ditch effort of saving three match points against P Kashyap went in vain. Kashyap took 36-minutes to beat his opponent 13-21, 13-21.

Kashyap, a quarter-finalist at the Goa nationals and the top seed at the event, will face Chetan Anand for the title on Friday. The national champion beat Siddharth Jain 21-13, 21-12 in 27 minutes.

While it was decided that the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the men’s and women’s open event would be played on the two synthetic surfaces on loan to the Petroleum sports board from the Railway Sports Promotion Board, the surfaces were laid well after the matches had ended. In the men’s doubles, Rupesh Kumar and V Diju, who had a walkover in their semi-finals, go up against Jaseel P Ismail and Marcus Bristow. Jaseel and Marcus won 21-14, 21-10 against Thomas Kurien and Siddharth Jain in the round-of-four match where Marcus displayed stupendous all-court performance.

In the women’s section, Aditi Mutetkar looks well on her way to a title at the tournament, beating her only real challenger at the event, BR Meenakshi, 21-17, 21-13. While she meets Aparna Balan - who beat Neelima Chetri 21-3, 21-4 in a sham of a match - top-seeded and Indian No.3 Aditi seems the stronger claimant to the crown.

Results: Men’s semi-finals: P Kashyap (IOCL) bt Ravinder Singh (GAIL) 21-13, 21-13; Chetan Anand (ONGC) bt Siddharth Jain (ONGC) 21-12, 21-13. Women’s semi-finals: Aditi Mutetkar (BPCL) bt BR Meenakshi (IOCL) 21-17, 21-13; Aparna Balan bt Neelima Chetri (GAIL) 21-3, 21-4; Men’s doubles semi-finals: Rupesh Kumar/ V Diju (ONGC) w/o Nikhil Kanetkar/JBS Vidyadhar (IOCL); Jaseel P Ismail/ Marcus Bristow (IOCL) bt Thomas Kurien/ Siddharth Jain (ONGC) 21-14, 21-10.