Ruthless Satwik-Chirag enter Malaysia Open semis
The second-seeded Indians will face either Korea's Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae or third seeded Malaysian pair of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik.
Asian champions Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were in ruthless form on Friday as they dismissed He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu in straight games to march into the men’s doubles semi-finals of the $1.3 million Malaysia Open.
The world No.2 pairing took just 35 minutes to brush aside the Chinese pair 21-11, 21-8 in Kuala Lumpur to maintain an unbeaten 2-0 record against the world No.32 combine.
The second seeded Indians, who won five titles last year, were in sublime touch at the Axiata Arena to win 42 of the 61 points played. From the outset Shetty and Rankireddy attacked the Chinese pair who were caught completely unaware by the flurry of darting winners. The Indian pair romped to a 7-0 lead before reaching the mid-game interval at 11-2.
Though He and Ren regained some confidence by playing calculative badminton, the Indians attacked back court player He in the fore court to chip away points at ease. A masterful 16 minutes were enough for the Indians to bag the first game.
At the start of the second game the Chinese pairing looked like they would give a fight but Shetty and Rankireddy upped the ante, though only a notch, that was enough for them to 11-4 lead, putting the contest firmly in their grip. Under scoreboard pressure, He and Ren kept making errors as the Asian Games champions pounced to score at every opportunity to clinch the contest with ease.
Next up, Rankireddy and Shetty will be up against South Korean sixth seeds and reigning world champions Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae. Though the Indians have a 3-1 record against the world No.3 combine, Kang and Seo have had a brilliant season of late, winning four titles including the World Championships and the year-end World Tour Finals.
Ashwini-Tanisha bow out
Earlier in the day, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto bowed out of the Super 1000 tournament when they lost 15-21, 13-21 in 39 minutes to Japan’s Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi. The Indians had beaten two-time former world champions Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara, also from Japan, a day prior to enter the quarter-finals.
Though Ashwini and Tanisha tried backing each other, they often found way off balanced by the Japanese pairing. The world No.24 tried to dig themselves out of trouble to win some points but their tactics were slightly naive, considering they have only been playing, but also winning lower level tournaments.
Though they tried their best but it will take some time to get adjusted to the skill level of the opponents at the highest level, especially for the young Tanisha. The front court player was adventurous, even over ambitious at times, hoping her shots to be winners but they eventually turned into errors which handed the match to the Japanese.