India's top men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty continued their impressive run to advance to the semifinals of the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament. However, PV Sindhu crashed out after falling yet again to Olympic champion An Se Young on Friday.
Satwik and Chirag, who were runners-up at the Hong Kong Open last week, produced a dominant performance to outperform the Chinese pair of Ren Xiang Yu and Xie Haonan 21-14 21-14 in the quarterfinals. They had got off to a flying start, unleashing a flurry of smashes to race to a 7-0 lead.
"We felt quite comfortable out there. Our goal was just to focus on our game and see how they responded. Right now, the way we’re playing, it feels great, especially being able to play back-to-back matches freely, without any niggles, really happy with how we played today," Satwik said.
"I think we made it tough for them right from the start. We didn’t allow them to settle into the game at all. They’re definitely a strong pair, but our plan was to keep things simple and take an early lead, and we managed to do that. So yes, really happy with the performance," added Chirag.
Currently ranked ninth in the world, Satwik and Chirag are likely to face their arch-rivals and second seeds Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia in the semifinals on Saturday.
Sindhu's poor run against World Number 1 An Se Young continued as she succumbed to a straight-game defeat against the Korean in the women's singles quarterfinals of the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament on Friday. A two-time Olympic medallist, Sindhu lost the match 14-21 13-21 in 38 minutes against the 23-year-old Korean, who had won the gold at the Paris Games. It was Sindhu's eighth straight defeat to An, against whom she is yet to register a single victory.
Sindhu started poorly and trailed 1-6 before narrowing it to 5-9 with a delicate cross-court drop. However, An used her trademark smashes to lead 11-5 at the interval. Sindhu managed to close in at 11-14, but the Korean maintained her grip and sealed the opener when the Indian returned a smash into the net.
In the second game, Sindhu led 3-2, but only briefly before An regained control. The Indian tried to push with attacking play and trailed 7-8, but An's superior deception and variety helped her go into the break 11-7 ahead. She extended the lead to 14-7 and never looked back.
Sindhu played some fine front-court drops and round-the-head smashes to win some points, but the Korean was always one up on her. An grabbed eight match points with a cross-court smash and sealed the semifinal spot when Sindhu faulted again.
Also read: Sindhu, Satwik-Chirag advance to quarterfinals
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