File photo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (right) and Chirag Shetty© X (formerly Twitter)
Star Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty sailed to the semifinals with a straight-game win over Malaysians Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap at the Thailand Open in Bangkok on Friday. The world No. 3 Indian duo picked up a facile 21-7 21-14 win over Arif and Yap in the quarterfinals of the Super 500 tournament. They will next face Chinese Taipei’s Lu Ming-Che and Tang Kai-Wei in the last four stage. The women’s doubles pair of Tanisha Carsto and Ashwini Ponnappa also moved to the semifinals.
But unlike Satwik and Chirag, Crasto and Ponnappa had to toil hard for one hour 16 minutes to pick up a 21-15 21-23 21-19 win over the sixth seeded South Korean duo of Lee Yu Lim and Shen Seung Chan.
The Indians will next face top seeds Thai shuttlers Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai in the semifinals However, young Indian shuttler Meiraba Luwang Maisnam’s splendid run came to an end as he was handed a 12-21 5-21 defeat by fourth seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand.
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