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Ratti shocks Shyam Gupta

Fifth seeded Sachin Ratti of Railways upset second seed Abhinn Shyam Gupta, while top seed Pullela Gopichand rallied to get the better of promising junior Arub Baidya to enter the semi-finals of the sixth BPL All-India Open badminton tournament in Bangalore on Saturday.

In the quarterfinals, Ratti came back strongly after losing the first game to carve out a 12-15, 15-7, 15-5 victory over the experienced Air India player, while Gopichand defeated Baidya 15-2, 13-15, 15-7.

Junior players hogged the limelight in the morning session, with Ratti's killing instinct paying dividends in his 95-minute encounter with Gupta.

Ratti started off well, leading 8-6, but lost momentum as Gupta caught up with him, levelling scores at 11 and winning the game.

Ratti, the Railway Open champion, was unstoppable in the next two games as Gupta failed to get his act together.

Reigning champion Gopichand had to work a little hard in his hour-long match against qualifier Baidya, who seemed to have done his home work well. He virtually gave Gopi a scare in the second game.

Baidya came back strongly in the second, displaying enormous talent to win it 15-13 after having lost the opener tamely. In the decider, Gopi raised his game several notches to wrap up the match.

Gopi now takes on Siddharth Jain (ONGC), who scored a 15-10, 15-13 win over Abhishek Bakshi (Air India), while in the other semi-final, Nikhil Kanetkar (IOC) will clash with Ratti.

Kanetkar beat Anuj Gupta (GNFC) 15-3, 15-4.