India’s Men’s Double pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stormed their way into the semifinal at the China Masters. The World No.5 pair defeated Indonesia’s Leo Carnando and Daniel Marthin 21-16, 21-14 in a one-sided affair on Friday, 24th November 2023.
The contest began with both the players fighting toe-to-toe. The game was pretty much balanced with the score at 8-8. However, the Indian pair with two winners managed to enter the interval with a two-point lead.
Post the interval, the Indonesian duo fought back and leveled the scores at 14-14. But the Indians did not let them take the lead and went on to win the first game 21-16 with three points on the trot.
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In the second game, the Indians managed to maintain the lead right from the start. They entered the mid-game interval with a five point cushion They went on to dominate and had seven match points, leading 2013.
Satwiksairaj ended up hitting wide, helping the Indonesians save a match point. However a well-judged leave from Chirag Shetty at the baseline ended the game, helping the Indians go through to the last-four stage.
With the win, the former World No.1 pair won their third successive match on straight games. They will next either China’s Ren Xiangyu and He Jiting or eighth seeds Liu Yuchen and Ou Zuanyi in the semifinal.
Meanwhile, HS Prannoy will be in action in the quarterfinal later in the day. He will be facing third seed Kodai Naraoka.
