Defending champion Abhinn Shyam Gupta was shown the door by his Petroleum Sports Promotion Board team mate Arvind Bhatt while top seed seed Chetan Anand had to toil to defeat JBS Vidyadhar in the semi-finals of the 68th National Badminton Championships in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Bhatt engaged the aggressive Allahabad champion in long rallies to unsettle him and win at 15-12, 3-15, 15-7, while Hyderabad's Vidyadhar streched Anand to the wire before losing 10-15, 15-7, 9-15.
In the women's singles, Aparna Popat defeated Saina Nahwal of Andhra Pradesh 11-3, 11-5 to set up a title clash with Trupti Murugunde of Maharashtra, who beat former national champion Manjusha Kanwar 11-1, 11-5.
But the day's honours went to Bhatt, who got the better of his more fancied opponent.
The 23-year-old displayed great court coverage to race to a 13-7 lead and then halted a late charge by Gupta to take the first game at 15-12.
But the defending champion proved that it was not over yet as he ran away with the second game at 15-3 and then took a 6-2 lead in the decider.
However, Bhatt came back strongly to level the score at 7-7 and then engaged Gupta in long rallies to take the game and match, after wasting as many as seven match-points.
In the other semi-final, Anand took the first game with ease but then lost his touch to hand over the advantage to Vidyadhar, who grabbed it with both hands and won 15-7.
In the decider, both the players tried to match each other shot for shot and the local boy even saved as many as four match-points before conceding defeat.
Results (semi-finals):
Men: Arvind Bhatt (PSPB) bt Abinn Shyam Gupta (PSPB) 15-12, 3-15, 15-7; Chetan Anand (PSPB) bt JBS Vidyadhar (PSPB) 15-10, 7-15, 15-9.
Women: Aparna Popat (PSPB) bt Saina Nehwal (AP) 11-3, 11-5; Trupti Murugunde (Mah) bt Manjusha Kanwar (PSPB) 11-1, 11-5.
