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India's men's badminton doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty continued their fine run in the Hong Kong Open to seal their berth for the semifinal of the Super 500 badminton tournament, defeating their Malaysian opponents in three games.
Satwik and Chirag, who are in the form of their life for the past few weeks, having clinched the BWF World Championships bronze medal recently, displayed superb coordination to defeat the fighting duo of Arif Junaidi and Roy King Yap 21-14, 20-22, 21-16 in a 64-minute contest of the USD 500,000 event.
The eighth-seeded Indian duo made a steady start but after they found momentum at 12-all, they dominated the opponents with powerful smashes, conceding little to their opponents and clinching the last five points in a row.
The Malaysian duo also found their rhythm in the second game and made a strong comeback, matching the Indian's court coverage.
After getting trailed early, they equalised at 6-all and after that never looked back, managing to keep ahead of the eight-seeded Indian pair for the most part before Satwik-Chirag drew parity at 20-all. The Malaysian duo also managed to hang on the to take the game, making it 1-1.
In the decider set, Satwik and Chirag started dominating with a a few notches and didn't allow the opponents to even once take the lead or threaten them to grab an easy win in the end.
The duo earlier defeated Thailand's Peeratchai Sukphun and Pakkapon Teeraratsakul to seal their berth for the quarterfinal of the Hong Kong Open.
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