Top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty cruised into the men’s doubles finals of the 2024 Thailand Open Super 500 in Bangkok on Saturday.
Rankireddy and Shetty beat Chinese Taipei’s Lu Ming Cheng and Tang Kai Wei 21-11, 21-12 in a semi-final match that lasted 35 minutes.
This is the Indian pairing’s fourth BWF Tour final this season after the Malaysia Open, India Open, and the French Open earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa exited the tournament in the semi-finals with a 12-21, 20-22 loss to Thailand’s Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai.
Rankireddy and Shetty needed just 13 minutes to clinch the opening game against Lu and Tang which they won 21-11. While the opening points saw both pairs exchange serve, Rankireddy and Shetty began to pull away at 5-4 and didn’t look back.
In the second game, the Chinese Taipei duo managed to begin well until they pulled away to lead at 9-6. But Rankireddy and Shetty then fought back to level at 10-all and took a significant lead of 17-10 through a nine-point winning streak.
In the end, Lu and Tang won only two more points as the world No 3 pair clinched the second game 21-12 to enter the finals.
Crasto and Ponnappa were quite outplayed in their opening game as the Thai pair led 11-7 at the break. Kititharakul and Prajongjai then went on two separate four-point winning streaks to close out the opening game 21-12.
In the second game, Crasto and Ponnappa began well and raced to a 8-4 lead to give them a good start. But the Thai pair then won 10 points in a row to level at 8-all and then get a lead of 13-8 on either side of the break.
Then Crasto and Ponnappa fought back to level the game at 14-all and both pairs began to exchange serves throughout until 20-all. However, the Thai pair didn’t need much time to close out the second game 22-20 and win the semi-final in 43 minutes.