Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty breezed into the semi-finals of the Malaysia Open Super 1000 after a straight-game win over their Chinese opponents on Friday.
Facing world No 32 pair of Ren Xiang Yu and He Ji Ting, the second seeds dispatched them 21-11, 21-8 in their quarter-final match on Court 2.
Just before the men’s doubles match began, the Indian pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa exited in the quarter-finals after a 15-21, 13-21 loss to Japan's Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi in the women’s doubles event.
Unlike their performance in the Round of 16 match, Crasto and Ponnappa were unable to replicate their feat from the previous day and were unmatched against the precision and consistency of the Japanese pair, who outclassed them in 39 minutes.
This was the second time in the last two months that the Indians have lost to Rin and Kie, after having been beaten by them in the final of the Syed Modi International tournament in Lucknow in December 2023.
In contrast, Rankireddy and Shetty showcased their class by racing to a huge lead of 11-2 at the break in the first game. Unlike their previous encounter at the China Masters, the Chinese duo of Ren and He were outplayed completely in the first game. The second game began on more level terms as the Chinese pair stayed abreast of Rankireddy and Shetty to equalise at 4-all.
But soon the second seeds exerted their dominance in the game and had a 11-4 lead at the break. They capitalised on this and closed out the match in just 35 minutes, through Shetty’s return of serve to take the second game 21-8.