KUALA LUMPUR: India’s top-seeded men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy scripted a spectacular comeback to earn a hard-fought win over the Chinese team of Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi to storm into the semifinals of the Malaysia Open in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
The Indian duo, who had lost the first set, was trailing 17-10 in the second and appeared poised to defeat but the ace shuttlers ranked fifth in the world in men’s doubles, made a stunning comeback to win the match 17-21, 22-20, 21-9.
Another Chinese pair of Liang Weikng and Chang Wang awaits the Chirag-Satwik Indian duo in the semifinals.
Indian ace shuttler HS Prannoy crashed out of the Malaysian Open after suffering a defeat to Japan’s Kodai Naraoka at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
The Japanese shuttler had a 2-0 head-to-head advantage over Prannoy going into their quarterfinal matchup on Friday at the opening BWF World Tour event of the season. Kodai had won both of their previous meetings, first at the Singapore Open and then at the World Tour Finals. Prannoy lost 16-21, 21-19, 10-21.
With five consecutive points before Prannoy scored, Kodai Naraoka got the match off to a strong start and gained the lead. The Japanese shuttler broke away at the conclusion of the first game to easily win it. The Indian badminton player fought his way back into the match to even it at 7-7.
The second game ended up being a nail-biting drama thanks to some incredible rallies. In the end, Prannoy prevailed in the struggle to compel a deciding set.
But Kodai Naraoka showed his dominance in the decisive game, barely giving his opponent a chance, and won the match in 84 minutes.
PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, the two-time Olympic medalists from India, crashed out of the Malaysia Open in the first round.
Saina, a two-time Commonwealth Games champion who suffered multiple injuries and a lack of form in 2022, lost 12-21 21-17 12-21 to Han Yue of China in the Super 1000 tournament.
Kidambi Srikanth was also eliminated in the first round of the men’s singles at the Malaysia Open. The world championships silver medalist, ranked 13th, lost 19-21, 14-21 to world No. 17 Kenta Nishimoto of Japan.
The tournament will end on January 15. (ANI)