Before the French Open, the Indian duo had great Commonwealth games where they won a gold medal.
On Friday, India badminton’s top men’s doubles pair, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated former world champions Yugo Kobayashi and Takuro Hoki of Japan to qualify for the semifinals of the French Open 2022, a BWF Super 750 tournament.
The 7th seed Indian pairing defeated the current world No.1 Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi by 23-21, 21-18 in the French Open quarterfinals on Friday.
The Indian duo was quick to finish the job and outclassed the opponents within 49 minutes.
The Satvik-Chirag pair will be facing the South Korean pair of Kim Won Ho and Choi Sol Gyu in the semifinals on Saturday.
Chirag and Satwiksairaj began strong and quickly raced to a 20-16 lead but the Japanese pair Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi saved four game points and it was 20-all soon. The CWG champions helped their nerves at the deuce and quickly finished the set.
In the second set as well, it was close. Hoki and Kobayashi were looking to equalize the set with an 18-16 lead. However, the Indian pair won the next five points in a row to end the contest.
In four meetings against the Japanese duo, Chirag and Satvik have won thrice. Before the French Open, the Indian duo had great Commonwealth Games where they won a gold medal.
Other Indian results in French Open
Apart from the Satwik-Chirag duo, the rest of the Indian hopes have crashed in the French Open BWF Super 750
In men’s singles, HS Prannoy and Sameer Verma bowed out on Thursday after suffering losses.
In the pre-quarterfinals, Prannoy crashed out fighting China’s Lu Guang Zu by 19- 21, 22-20, and 19-21. Sameer Verma on the other side lost in straight sets 18-21, 11-21 to Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
Kidambi Srikanth also bowed out of the tournament after getting beaten by Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 21-19, 12-21, 19-21. The match lasted for one hour and 15 minutes.
Although Srikanth won the first game 21-19 but was outclassed in the next two games.
