Korea Open: Satwik-Chirag enter semis

IMAGE: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty clinched a straight game win. Photograph: Jason Cairnduff/Reuters

Star Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty entered the semifinals of the Korea Open Super 500 tournament with a straight game win over Japan’s Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in Yeosu on Friday.

The world No.3 Indian combination, seeded third here, took just 40 minutes to get the better of the fifth seeded Japanese pair 21-14 21-17.

Satwik and Chirag will take on second seeds Wei Keng Liang and Chang Wang of China, who are the  2021 world champions in men’s doubles.

Satwik and Chirag are now India’s flag bearers in the tournament after the premature exits of PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth among others.

 

Playing their first tournament since winning the Indonesia Open Super 1000 last month, it was a neck and neck affair till the first six points before the Indians surged ahead pocketing four straight points.

Once ahead, Satwik and Chirag managed to keep their nose in front to bag the first game easily.

The Indians made a slow start in the second game as they trailed 3-6, but lifted their game just in time to claw back to grab six consecutive points to lead 14-9.

The Japanese pair, however, were in no mood to give up without a fight. They played aggressively and were also helped by some unforced errors by the Indians to draw level at 16-16.

But Satwik and Chirag stepped up on the accelerator at that point to win the game to assure themselves a place in the last-four stage.

For all the latest Sports News Click Here 

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! TechAI is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.