Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty on Saturday became the first Indian doubles pair to enter the summit clash of a BWF Super 500 tournament with a three-game win in the Thailand Open semi-finals.

The world number 16 Indian duo prevailed 22-20 22-24 21-9 against the 19th-ranked South Korean team of Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol after battling hard for 63 minutes.

Thailand Open SF as it happened: Satwik / Chirag Shetty overcome former world champs to reach final

It is the first final of the 2019 season for Satwik and Chirag, the men’s doubles silver medallist at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The unseeded India combination will face third seeds Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen of China in the summit clash on Sunday.

“Well, I’m pretty happy with our performances,” said Satwik after the match. ‘Playing with a calm, cool and positive mindset is helping us a lot. We are confident about ourselves that we can pull off the match tomorrow. We won’t be doing anything different in the finals. We’re very excited about our first finals tomorrow and will give our best and make India proud.”

Satwik and Chirag were slow off the blocks as the Korean pair had the better share of exchanges in the first game to lead 3-0 and then 11-10 at the break. But after the break, the Indians lifted their game and drew parity at 13 apiece before surging ahead 20-18.

Hyun and Cheol fought back to win two consecutive points to draw level at 20-20. The Indians, though, kept their composure and earned two crucial points to take the first game.

It was the other way round in the second game as Satwik and Chirag came out positive to take a 3-0 lead initially. The Koreans, however, fought back with some smart play at the net and overhead smashes to lead 11-9 at the break, which they later extended to 19-12.

But the Indians looked in no mood to surrender as they clawed back to make it 20-all. The two pairs fought tooth and nail before the Koreans eventually pocketed the second game 24-22 as the Indians squandered two match points.

In the final game, it was a cakewalk for the Indians as their Korean rivals failed to sustain the tempo. Satwik and Chirag started aggressively and easily sealed the match.

“I feel that both of us have become a lot calmer as compared to before and that has brought a major improvement in the way we are playing,” said Chirag after the match. “The highlight point of the match is obviously the last point because it was simply amazing to win a semi-final against Shin/Ko as they have been players we’ve looked up to in the past. That was special.

“I feel even though we had two match points in the second game we lost that game, we were able to win the decider quite comfortably because we kept our calm. We weren’t to eager to score a point. If we had a chance we went for it rather than rushing and committing a mistake.” he added.

[With inputs from PTI]