Picture Credit: Twitter
India’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stormed into the semifinal of Korea Open 2023 . The duo took down former world champion pair of Takuro Hoki and Yogo Kobayashi of Japan to advance to the next round. The Indian pair took 40 minutes to defeat their opponents in two straight sets of 21-14, 21-17 in the quarterfinal round. It was the fourth time the Satwik-Chirag pair emerged victorious in their fifth fight against the Japanese duo.
The world number 3 pair will now square off against world number 2 and 2021 champion duo Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang of China in the semifinal round on Saturday, July 22. This is the first tournament that the pair has been playing since their win at the Indonesia Open Super 1000 last month.
The quarterfinal game began with a neck-to-neck fight till first six points, before the Indians surged ahead in the game and picked four straight points. After conceding a few points, Satwik-Chirag scored another five straight points and took control of the game at 15-6. However, their rivals who were in no mood to give up bounced back to win four consecutive points, but the Indians proved to be more powerful, and ended up winning the first set by 21-14.
Simultaneously, the second set was a lot tighter, but the young Indians continued their dominance and sealed it by 21-17, fixing their spot in the next round. Notably, Satwik-Chirag are the only Indians left in the tournament, after the exit of names like HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu.
The results at the Korea Open will add to player’s qualifying rankings for the forthcoming Paris 2024 Olympics.
