Wuhan, April 28 :Indian singles stars Saina Nehwal and H.S. Prannoy settled for bronze medals after losing in the semi-finals of the Badminton Asia Championships here on Saturday.

London Olympic bronze medallist Saina lost to Chinese Taipei top seed Tai Tzu Ying 25-27, 19-21 in 45 minutes. It was Saina's third bronze medal in the Asia Championships.

Following her ninth consecutive win against Saina, Tai has taken a 11-5 lead in head-to-head record against the veteran Indian.

In the final, world No.2 Tai will meet Chinese sixth seed Chen Yufei, who eased past South Korean seventh seed Sung Ji Hyun 21-12, 21-13 in 37 minutes.

The 20-year-old Yufei booked a spot in the final without dropping one game in four matches.

"Tai is keeping good form this year. I haven't beat her for a long time, so she is really a tough rival for me to play," Yufei was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency. "But I will try to give out my best to challenge her."

In a men's singles semi-final, Prannoy was defeated by Reigning Olympic champion and Chinese third seed Chen Long, who won 21-16, 21-18 in 52 minutes. 

World No.10 Prannoy bagged his first medal at the continental meet. It was India's first medal since Anup Sridhar's bronze medal in 2007.

In the final, former world champion and home favourite Chen will meet unseeded Japanese Kento Momota, who stunned fifth seed and Malaysian veteran Lee Chong Wei with a 21-19, 21-14 victory in 55 minutes.

The men's doubles final will be fought between the Chinese top-seeded pair of Li Junhui and Liu Yucheng and Japanese pair Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda.

Junhui and Yucheng were one match away from defending the title when they overcame compatriots Huang Kaixiang and Wang Yilyu 21-17, 14-21, 21-10, while Kamura and Sonoda went past home duo of Zhang Nan and Liu Cheng 14-21, 21-12, 25-23.

In the women's doubles final, Japanese third seeds Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota will meet second seeded comnpatriots Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi.

The mixed doubles final will be a battle between Indonesian top seeded Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir and Chinese second seeds Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping.

 

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New Delhi, Nov 5: The mega auction ahead of the Indian Premier League 2025 will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on November 24 and 25, the BCCI announced on Tuesday.

This is the second successive year the auction is being held overseas as Dubai hosted the previous one ahead of the IPL 2024.

The player registration officially closed on Monday and a total of 1,574 cricketers (1,165 Indian and 409 overseas) have been signed up for the auction, which will clash with the third and fourth day’s play of the first Test between India and Australia in Perth, which begins on November 22.

Each franchise will be able to form a maximum squad of 25 players (including respective retained players), and a total of 204 slots will be up for grabs from the auction.

The list includes 320 capped players, 1,224 uncapped players and 30 players from the Associate Nations.

Among capped players, 48 are from India. Moreover, 965 uncapped players of the country will also be part of the auction.

This year’s auction will feature some high-profile India stars such as Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep Singh.

The 10 franchises will collectively have around Rs 641.5 crore to spend for the available 204 slots.

Out of those 204 slots, 70 are earmarked for overseas players.

As of now, 46 players have been retained by the 10 franchises with cumulative expenditure of Rs 558.5 crore.

Each franchise was allocated Rs 120 crore to build their squads but after the retention process, which was announced on October 31, Punjab Kings have the biggest purse -- Rs 110.5 crore.

The Punjab outfit retained just two uncapped players -- Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh for Rs 9.5 crore.

Rajasthan Royals, under Sanju Samson, have the smallest purse of Rs 41 crore after retaining six players.

The Kolkata Knight Riders have also retained six players but they have a remaining purse of Rs 51 crore.