India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty qualified for the men’s doubles semifinals after registering a hard-fought win over qualifiers Choi Solgyu and Seo Seung Jae of Korea at the Thaliand Open on Friday.
The unseeded Indian combination fought valiantly for exactly an hour to get the better of their Korean rivals 21-17, 17-21, 21-19 in a quarterfinal duel.
The win was Rankireddy and Shetty’s maiden win over the Korean pair.
The 16th-ranked Indians will play against another Korean pair of Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol in the semifinal on Saturday.
B. Sai Praneeth's run in the Thailand Open came to an end as he lost to Japan's Kanta Tsuneyama in the men's singles quarterfinal. The seventh beat Praneeth 21-18, 21-12 to progress to the semifinal.
Rankireddy's luck did not extend to the mixed doubles as he ad partner Ashwini Ponappa lost to Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Hagashino 21-13, 21-15 in the last-eight round.
