India’s Rankireddy-Shetty ecstatic after beating Taipei’s Lin-Kuan in straight sets to enter title clash for first time this year after five semi-final heartbreaks
Indian shuttlers Chirag Shetty (left) and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy during their semi-final match at the Hong Kong Open on Saturday. Pic/Badminton Photo
India’s star men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty entered their first final of the season on Saturday after storming to a straight-game win at the Hong Kong Open Super 500 event.
The World No. 9 duo defeated Chinese Taipei’s Bing-Wei Lin and Chen Cheng Kuan 21-17, 21-15 to give them a shot at winning a title this after suffering five semi-final heartbreaks (Malaysia Open, India Open, Singapore Open, China Open, World Championships).
“[We’re in a] final, finally! Our last final was at the Thailand Open in May last year. We’ve been constantly playing semi-finals so it feels really good to finally get to play a final,” said a relieved and ecstatic Shetty. Meanwhile, Rankireddy said the duo had finally broken their jinx of playing here.
“Hong Kong has never been good for us. Pre-Covid, we played three or four tournaments here and always got knocked out in Round One. So we’re really happy to change that narrative,” said Rankireddy. The opening game saw the two pairs locked at 12-12 before the Indians surged to 15-12 and closed the game on their second game point with Shetty’s angled, high-paced return.
Kuan and Lin started stronger in the second game, leading 4-2, but the Indians restored parity at 12-12. From there, the Indians tightened their grip, moving to 19-15 before a net error by Kuan handed Rankireddy and Shetty five match points. The Indians converted immediately after the Taiwanese went long. This result comes on the back of the Indians clinching the bronze medal at the BWF World Championships last month.
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