India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (proper) and Chirag Shetty. File.
| Photo Credit: AP
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty turned the first Indian men’s doubles pair to enter the final of the Badminton Asia Championships after their opponents retired halfway by means of the semi-final match, right here on April 29.
After profitable the first sport 21-18, Satwik and Chirag had been trailing 13-14 within the second when the Chinese Taipei duo of Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin retired, handing the match to the Indians.
They face the eighth-seeded Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi, who defeated fourth seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan 21-6 26-24 within the different semifinal, within the final on Sunday.
Satwik stated it was “unfortunate” that the match ended that means with their opponents conceding it.
“Nevertheless, we won the first game; we played well compared to the last two-three matches. We were there. We were not giving them the chances,” Satwik stated.
“Our strategy was on point. Happy to play finals infront of huge crowd like we are playing in India.” On their final opponents on Sunday, Chirag stated, “It’s always a close against the Malaysians. They are defenders and we are attackers. It’s going to a good game.” Satwik and Chirag had earlier made it to a historic semifinals after outplaying Indonesia’s skilled duo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-11 21-12 within the quarterfinals on Friday. This will likely be India’s first men’s doubles medal on the continental occasion after 52 years.
PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy had misplaced within the quarterfinals within the girls’s and men’s singles respectively.
