PTI
Kuala Lumpur, January 13
Commonwealth Games gold medallists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty played their hearts out to beat BWF World Tour Finals champions Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi in three games to enter the semifinals of the Malaysia Open Super 1000 tournament here today.
The Indian pair, seeded seventh, toiled hard before getting the better of the Chinese duo 17-21 22-20 21-9 in a men’s doubles quarterfinals clash. They will play another Chinese pair — Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang — in the last-four round.
Earlier, HS Prannoy went down fighting to world No. 7 Japanese Kodai Naraoka in three gruelling games in the men’s singles quarterfinals match. The 30-year-old eventually ran out of steam in the 84-minute contest, losing 16-21 21-19 10-21 to the 21-year-old Naraoka, who seemed faster and fitter despite playing two long matches in the earlier rounds.
This was Naraoka’s third win over the Indian in as many meetings. He had defeated Prannoy in three games at the Singapore Open and World Tour Finals last year.
Prannoy played some crisp winners and displayed delicate touches at the net to recover from the opening-game reversal but his younger rival managed to keep things under control in the decider as the Indian succumbed after a heap of unforced errors.
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