Badminton: Satwik-Chirag pair storms into the finals of Thailand Open

India’s top men’s doubles pair, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty put up a stellar performance as the duo blasted past South Korean pair - Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol to storm into the finals of Thailand Open. Rankireddy and Shetty registered a hard-fought win over the 2014 World Champions, who in turn surrendered 20-22, 24-22, 9-21 in the men's doubles semifinals.

"I feel even though we had two match points in the second, we were able to win the decider quite comfortably because we kept our calm. We weren’t too eager to score a point. If we had a chance we went for it, rather than rushing and committing a mistake."

- Chirag Shetty

He further added, "Well, I feel that the both of us have become a lot more calmer as compared to before that’s the major improvement. The highlight point of the match is obviously the last point because it was simply amazing to win a semi-final against Shin/Ko as they have been players we’ve looked up to in the past. That was special."

"Well, pretty happy with our performances...playing like calm cool and positive mind set helping us a lot...And we are confident about ourselves that we can do it tomorrow. We won't do anything different tomorrow. Very excited for our first finals tomorrow. Will give our best and make India proud."

- Satwiksairaj Rankireddy

This comes on the back of a valiant 21-17, 17-21, 21-19 win over the South Korean pair of Choi Solgyu and Seo Sueng Jae yesterday in the quarterfinals. The world number 16 pair from India showed nerves of steel to enter their maiden final of a Super 500 event and will look to get past the final hurdle to register a historic title win.