India Open: Satwik-Chirag keep home hopes alive as Sindhu exits

Delhi: After watching PV Sindhu and Kiran George lose in their quarter-final matches at the India Open Super 750 tournament, the packed Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium found some solace in the dominant win of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.

The Indian men's doubles duo moved to the semi-finals, defeating Korea’s Yong Jin and Kang Min Hyuk in straight games 21-10, 21-17.

Rankireddy and Shetty came out all guns blazing from the first shot and gave the otherwise gloomy audience something to cheer.

Right from the opening game, the Indians started hitting their opponents out of the match with Rankireddy, in particular, producing some booming down-the-line smashes. 

Talking about their approach to the game, Shetty said, "I think right from the get-go, we were all guns blazing. That's what we wanted to do. As you could see in the end, if we were a bit slow, they could capitalize by manoeuvring the shuttle around. We wanted to prevent them from getting back into the game. I'm happy we stuck to the plan until the end."

The plan to catch the opponents by surprise worked as the Korean duo of Kang and Yong were clueless against the Indian duo in the first game.

In the second game, the Koreans tried to make a comeback and kept the score at 16-16 but the Indian duo stuck to the plan of putting the pressure on opponents and eventually won 21-17 to enter the semi-finals.

"We were comfortable even though it was getting close," said Shetty. "We knew that if we kept the pressure on, they wouldn't sustain it. It was our mistakes in the last three points, that brought them close. But there was no tension.

"We were under control, taking it one point at a time. We remained positive from the start," added Shetty on their plan when the score was 16-16 in the second game.

The Indian duo is the only representation of the hosts India in the tournament and will face third-seed Sze Fei Goh and Nur Izzudin of Malaysia in the semi-finals.

PV Sindhu, Kiran George lose in quarters

In the other Indian games, PV Sindhu lost to Olympic bronze medallist Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia and Kiran George lost to Weng Hong Yang of China.

Sindhu lost in a three-game thriller 9-21, 21-19, 17-21 to Tunjung.

In the men’s singles quarterfinals, Kiran fought hard against Weng and even saved a match point in the second game but an error on a forehand drive ended his hopes of advancing any further in the competition. He lost 13-21, 19-21.