Star Indian doubles players Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached the quarter-finals of the French Open Final with a straight games win over Malaysia’s Man Wei Chong and Kai Wu Tee.
This is Satviksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s third consecutive French Open Final of the year and third time in this tournament. They won the men’s doubles semifinals 21-13, 21-16 on Saturday.
India’s world number one pair of Satwiksairaj Ronkireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated South Korea’s Seo Seung Jae and Kang Min Hyuk in straight games here to reach the men’s doubles French Open Final 750 tournament.
French Open Final 2024: Satwik-Chirag into final
Satwik and Chirag, who are in a dream run to emerge as the world No. 1 doubles pair after consecutive runner-up finishes at the 2023 China Open, Malaysia Open Super 1000 and India Open Super 750, defeated the Malaysian pair by 21. 13, 21-12 in Thursday night’s round-of-16 clash.
Such was the Indians’ dominance that the match ended in just 32 minutes.
Later on Friday, they will face the Thai pair of Jomkoh Supak and Kedren Kittinopong for a place in the semi-finals.
However, Lakshya Sen’s campaign at the tournament came to an end after he lost to Thailand’s reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsorn. Kunlavut won his men’s singles semi-final 20-22, 21-13, 21-11 in one hour and 18 minutes.
In a head-to-head clash between two of the world’s best pairs, the Indian side of Rankireddy and Shetty dominated most of the matches against the reigning world champions to make a comeback, after losing against the same pair in the India Open final earlier this year.
After success the first game cushly, Rankireddy and Shetty acquired
the above hand in the second game as well.
Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae tried to fight back after the break midway through the game, but a remarkable breakthrough in the 40th minute helped the Indians pocket the match.
The Indian duo will face Chinese Taipei’s Li Jie-Hui and Yang Po-Hsuan in the final on Sunday, who defeated Japan’s Takuro Haki and Yugo Kobayashi in their semi-final.
French Open Final 2024: Sindhu, Trisa-Gayatri in quarterfinals, Srikanth knocked out
Meanwhile, PV Sindhu, playing her first BWF Tour event after returning from a knee injury, will take on China’s second seed Chen Yu Fei in the women’s quarterfinals.
Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, fought back from an opening-game reversal to outgun world number 10 Zhang 13-21, 21-10, 21-14 to enter her first quarter-final of the season.
In another Thursday night match, the women’s doubles pair of Trisa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also advanced to the quarterfinals, defeating the seventh-seeded Japanese pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota 21-18, 21-13.
They will face top seeds King Chen Chen and China’s Yi Fan Jia in the next round.
French Open Final 2024: Sindhu loses to Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei
World No. 1 Indian duo Satwik-Chirag, who won the title in 2022, won the semi-finals 21-19, 21-13 against world No. 32 Supak Jomkoh and Kitinupong Kedren of Thailand.
Satviksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached the semi-finals with straight games wins to clinch the men’s doubles title, but PV Sindhu fell short in the women’s singles quarter-finals at the French Open final 750 badminton tournament on Friday. Champions Kunlavut will play against Vitidsorn.
The Asian Games keeper, who had vanquished Malaysian pair of Man Wei Chong and Kai Woo Tee on Thursday night, will next meet world keeper and third seeds Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae, who had beaten the Indian duo at the India Open final in January this year.
Commonwealth Games gold medalist Lakshya Sen also advanced to the last four with a 19-21, 21-15, 21-13 win over Singapore’s former world champion Loh Kane of the UK. Lakshya will next take on reigning world champion Kunlavut Vhitidsorn of Thailand for a place in the final.