Satvik and Chirag
– Photo: Social Media
Expansion
India’s pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stormed into the semifinals of the Indonesia Open World Tour Super 1000 badminton after defeating top seeds Indonesian pair of Fajar Alfiyan and Mohd Riyan Aradiyanto. In men’s singles, India’s HS Prannoy defeated Japan’s Kodai Noraka 21-18, 21-6 to enter the last four. Prannoy will now take on the winner of the match between Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen and Chinese Taipei’s Tin Chin Chou.
Kidambi Srikanth had to face defeat in the quarterfinals. Seventh seeds Satwik and Chirag defeated the Indonesian pair 21-13 21-13 in 41 minutes. The Indian pair will now take on the winner of the match between Korea’s Min Hyuk Kang and Seung Jae Seo and Indonesia’s Leo Roli Caranendo and Daniel Marthin.
Feng settles scores with Srikanth
World Championship silver medalist Kidambi Srikanth went down 14-21 21-14 12-21 in the quarterfinals to world No. 10 Li Shi Feng of China in a hard-fought match that lasted one hour and nine minutes. With this win, Feng avenged his previous loss to Srikanth. In two matches between the two players, both have registered one win each. Both Srikanth and Feng, ranked 22nd in the world, are unseeded in the event. Srikanth raced to a 2-0 lead in the opening set but thereafter made a series of unforced errors to pay the price.
The Chinese player took an 11-7 lead at the break in the first game. Feng continued to lead after that and took the first game easily. The start of the second game saw an equal contest between the two players but Srikanth soon found his old rhythm and took an 11-6 lead at the break. They won this game by continuing to play aggressively. However, he could not maintain this momentum in the third game as Feng took an 11-6 lead. A Chinese player needed medical help during the break. He then took to the court with a bandage on his left foot but his game did not suffer. Feng won the third game by a huge margin of 21-12 to book a place in the semi-finals.