YEOSU-SI (South Korea): The Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty booked their place in the final of the Korea Open 2023 badminton tournament at the Jinnam Stadium in Yeosu on Saturday.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty surpassed the Republic of China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, current World No. 2 in the badminton rankings, by 21-15, 24-22 to seal their place in the third final of the year.
In the final, they will face the winners of the other semi-final clash between Indonesian top seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto and the Republic of Korea’s Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae on Sunday.
Both pairs matched each other’s intensity at the beginning of the match. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty gained the upper hand in the first game after winning five points back-to-back to make the score 14-8 from 9-8.
The Indian badminton players kept the momentum in their favour to close out the opening game with ease. But the Republic of China pair bounced back with an aggressive approach in the second game.
Trailing 14-9 at one stage, Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang levelled the scores at 19-all, but the Indian duo managed to dig deep to finish off the contest in 40 minutes.
This victory marked their first-ever win over the Chinese duo in three meetings. Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang got the better of the Indians at the All England Open and Malaysia Open earlier this year.
In their quarter-final clash, the third seed and world number three ranked pair in Badminton World Federation (BWF) Rankings defeated former world champions Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan 21-14, 21-17.
The star Indian duo has already won the Swiss and Indonesia Open titles on the 2023 BWF World Tour.
Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu, meanwhile, suffered another shock in the opening round after she went down to Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po on Wednesday. (ANI)