Indian shuttler B Sai Praneeth went down fighting to second seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in the men's singles semifinals of the New Zealand Open badminton here on Saturday.
The 25-year-old Sai Praneeth was the lone Indian left in the fray in the tournament as it reached the semifinal phase. However, his run came to an end after he succumbed 14-21, 21-19, 21-8 loss in a match that lasted over an hour.
On Friday, Praneeth hardly broke a sweat as he took just 28 minutes to quell the challenge of Sri Lanka’s Niluka Karunaratne 21-7, 21-9 in the quarterfinals.