Bangkok: India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty qualified for the men’s doubles semifinals after registering a hard-fought win over qualifiers Choi Solgyu and Seo Seung Jae of Korea at the Thailand Open on Friday.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in action during their quarter-final. AFP
The unseeded Indian combination fought valiantly for exactly an hour to get the better of their Korean rivals 21-17, 17-21, 21-19 in a quarterfinal duel.
The win was Rankireddy and Shetty’s maiden win over the Korean pair. The 16th-ranked Indians will play against another Korean pair of Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol in the semifinals on Saturday.
Later in the day, B Sai Praneeth will be up against seventh seed Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in the men’s singles quarterfinals, while Rankireddy will combine with Ashwini Ponnappa to play against third seed Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino of Japan in the last-eight round of the mixed doubles.