The Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the semi-finals of the 2024 Thailand Open Super 500 on Friday with a straight-game win over 21-7, 21-14 win over Malaysia’s Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap.
Earlier, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto made it through to the women’s doubles semi-final after a tense match against South Korea’s Lee Yu Lim and Shin Seung Chan. The fourth seeded Indian pair came up with a tight 21-15, 21-23, 21-19 win over the sixth seeds from South Korea.
Meanwhile, Meiraba Luwang Maisnam’s impressive run at the tournament came to an end in a 12-21, 5-21 loss to world No 8 Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the men’s singles quarter-finals.
Rankireddy and Shetty, the top seeds in the competition, were far too superior for Arif and Yap, who are ranked 64th in the world. The Indians strolled to take the first game 21-7 without breaking a sweat.
The Malaysians did put up a better display after the change of sides in the second game, but the world No 3 pair of Rankireddy and Shetty were too hot to handle as they pocketed it 21-14 to wrap up the match in 38 minutes.
In the women’s doubles encounter, Ponnappa and Crasto fought off a stern challenge from the Korean pair in a match that lasted an hour and 16 minutes.
The Indians won the first game 21-15, in the first meeting between the two pairs, after a strong finish after both teams were tied at 8-8 at one stage.
Both pairs remained close to each other on the scoreboard in the second, as the Indians and Koreans traded points from 18-18. Eventually it was Lee and Shin who managed to get the breakthrough with the scores tied at 21-21 to clinch the second game and take the match into the decider.
Once again, neither team managed to get too far ahead of the opponent as they traded points at regular intervals.
At 19-19 however, the Indians turned the screws by bringing up a match point and converting it to move into the semi-final.
In the men’s singles match, Maisnam, who had stunned fifth seed HS Prannoy earlier in the tournament, could not keep up with the reigning world champion Vitidsarn. The 23-year-old from Thailand had a quick start in the opening game, taking a 3-0 lead and built on that to capture the first game 21-12.
Though Maisnam won the first point in the second game, Vitidsarn won the next six on the trot to establish a 6-1 lead. And at 6-4, the Thai player won 12 consecutive points to go up 18-4 before eventually winning the game 21-5 to secure a spot in the semi-final.