Korea Open: Satwiksairaj-Chirag storm into semifinals

Yeosu-si [South Korea]: India’s star men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stormed into the semifinals of the ongoing Korean Open badminton tournament on Friday.

As per the Olympics.com, the third seed and world number three ranked pair in Badminton World Federation (BWF) Rankings defeated former world champions Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan 21-14, 21-17 in the quarterfinals stage of the tournament. It was Satwiksairaj-Chirag’s fourth win over the former world number one Japanese duo in their previous five meetings.

It was the Indian team’s fourth win over the former world No. 1 Japanese pair, seeded fifth at the Korea Open, in five meetings.

In the QFs, the Indian quickly took the first game under control with two separate runs of five points. Eventually from 5-5 each, the scoreline shifted in Chirag-Satwik’s favour at 15-6. The Japanese duo bagged next four points but could not really overcome the lead of Indian pair, losing the first game 21-14.

The second game was a closely contested one. The two teams were at 8-8 at one point. From that point on, Chrag-Satwik played some brilliant badminton to move to 14-9. The Japanese captured three successive points to level the scores at 16-16, but the Indian pair sealed the game and match in 40 minutes.

Chirag-Satwik will be facing the second seed and world number two duo of  Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang of the Republic of China in their semi-final clash on Saturday.

The two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu was eliminated in the first round of the tournament, going down to Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po on Wednesday.

Results at the tournament count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The qualification window to the sport’s biggest event for badminton started on May 1 this year.