The Indian men’s doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made it to the final of the Malaysia Open 2024, after they beat the WR-3 South Korean team of Kang Min-hyuk and Seo Seung-jae 21-18, 22-20, on Saturday.
As expected, it was a tough game for the Indians, where they had to dig deep, to get past the finish line. In the first game, Satwik-Chirag got to a lead of 6-2 in no time, but from there on, the Koreans made a comeback at 12-14. With a two-point lead, the Indians finished the game then.
Come the second, the Koreans showed their class, and raced to 8-3. In the fact, at one point, the match looked like, will go into the third game, with scores locked at 18-12 in favour of the opposition. Then from 20-14, Indians got eight back-to-back points to win the match, and enter the finals.
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Meanwhile, Satwik-Chirag’s opponents in the finals are not yet decided, as they will face the winners from the match between Lian WK/Wang C of China, and Hoki T/Kobayashi Y of Japan. If the Indians manage to win the Malaysia Open title, it will only be their second Super 1000 trophy, after Indonesia Open last year.