Continuing their fine run in the Hong Kong Open, top-rated Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty sailed into the semifinal of the Super 500 badminton tournament by defeating their Malaysian opponents in three games on Friday.
Satwik and Chirag, who have been on a roll in the past few weeks after having clinched the BWF World Championships bronze medal recently, displayed superb coordination to overwhelm the formidable duo of Arif Junaidi and Roy King Yap 21-14, 20-22, 21-16 in a 64-minute contest of the US $500,000 event.
See also: Satwik-Chirag settle for bronze at Paris World Championships
The eighth-seeded Indian pair made a slow start, but once they found momentum at 12-all, they surged ahead with powerful smashes, conceding little to their opponents and clinching the last five points in a row.
The Malaysians found their rhythm in the second game and made a strong comeback, matching the Indians’ court coverage. After trailing early on, they equalised at 6-all and after that never looked back, managing to keep ahead of the eight-seeded Indian pair for most part before Satwik-Chirag drew parity at 20-all. But the Malaysians managed to hang on to take the game make it 1-1.
In the decider, the Indians upped their game a few notches and didn't allow the opponents to even once take the lead or threaten them, to grab an easy win in the end.
On Thursday, World No. 9 Satwik and Chirag had edged out Thailand's Peeratchai Sukphun and Pakkapon Teeraratsakul to secure a place in the quarterfinals.
Later in the day, Lakshya Sen beat Ayush Shetty 21-16, 17-21, 21-13 in an all-Indian men’s singles quarterfinal. Lakshya will face either Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei or Indonesia’s Alwi Farhan in the semifinals.
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