Indian shuttlers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are on a roll as the duo clinched their place in the final of the Malaysian Open after defeating the South Korean pair of Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae in straight games at the Malaysia Open Super 1000 tournament on Saturday.
The Indian duo dueled it out against the South Koreans in two intense sets of 21-18, 22-20 to book their place in the final.
They will be facing off against the Chinese pair of Wang and Liang, or the Japanese duo of Kobayashi and Hoki.
The second-seeded pair of Satwik and Chirag, who reached the semifinals in 2023, were hopeful about continuing the good run and going deep in the draw after the stiff 44-minute test from the world No. 9 duo, which had beaten the Indians twice last year — at the Thailand Open and China Open.
They sure did the same as the Indian pair, who won the Asian Games gold medal last year, looked in control during the rallies and were also proactive at the net to eke out a dominating 21-11 21-8 win over world no. 32 Yu and Ting in just 35 minutes, and reach the finals.
Satwik and Chirag have looked in ominous form, winning the Asian Games gold in Hangzhou, a Super 1000 crown in Indonesia, the Korea Open Super 500 and the Swiss Open super 300 last year before grabbing a a career-best ranking of World No.1, albeit for a brief time.
(more to follow…)
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