Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in action© X (Twitter)
The popular men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were knocked out of the ongoing Malaysian Open badminton tournament in the semifinal stage in Kuala Lumpur. On Saturday, the seventh-seeded Indian duo was defeated by South Korea’s Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-Jae 10-21, 15-21 in a rather one-sided match within 40 minutes, bringing an end to the Indian challenge at the Malaysian Open. “They played well,” Satwik summed up as quoted by Olympics.com. “We saw them playing well earlier in the tournament as well and we were prepared. But I felt they played really well today… They did not give away any easy points and made us work hard for every point.”
“We followed our game plan.. But kudos to them. Disappointed but it was a good tournament for us,” Satwik added.
Currently placed ninth in men’s doubles rankings, ‘Sat-Chi’ were on the backfoot right from the start, trailing by 6-11 in the first game and losing it in just 19 minutes.
The Indian duo made a comeback during the second game, leading by 11-8. However, they failed to sustain this momentum and lost the match.
“We started to be a little more calmer in the second game right from the first point but credit to them. Maybe we gave away a few easy points,” said Chirag.
Kim Won-ho secured the mixed doubles silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics while his partner Seo Seung-Jae is the current men’s and mixed doubles world champion.
In the previous edition of the Malaysian Open last year, Satwik-Chirag had finished as runners-up.
In the earlier rounds, Olympians Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy faced an exit and could not make much impact. India Open will be taking place in Delhi from Tuesday onwards and will witness these stars in action again.
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