India’s Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy stunned fifth seeds Goh Liu Ying and Chan Peng Soon of Malaysia in a hard-fought three-game contest to enter the mixed doubles semi-finals of the Thailand Open badminton tournament in Bangkok on Friday.
The unseeded Indian pair toiled hard for one hour and 15 minutes to beat their world No 6 Malaysian opponents 18-21, 24-22, 22-20 in a nail-biting quarter-final duel.
Watch highlights of the match here:
Ponnappa and Rankireddy, world No 22, will be up against the winners of the last quarter-final match between top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand and the Korean duo of Sung Hyun Ko and Hye Won Eom.
Sixth seed Indian PV Sindhu will take on Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, seeded fourth, in the women’s singles quarter-finals, while Sameer Verma will play third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the men’s singles last eight round later in the day.
Rankireddy will then team up with Chirag Shetty to face Malaysia’s Yew Sin Ong and Ee Yi Teo in the men’s doubles quarter-finals.
(With inputs from PTI)