Satwik-Chirag enter French Open final

PTI

Paris, October 29

Commonwealth Games champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty progressed to the men’s doubles final of the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament with a commanding straight-game win over Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho of South Korea here today. The world No. 8 Indian pair dished out an attacking game and also controlled the net to outwit the South Korean combination, ranked 18th, 21-18 21-14 in a match lasting 45 minutes.

The Indian pair, seeded seventh, thus reached its second final of a BWF World Tour event in 2022, having won the India Open Super 500 tournament in January. Rankireddy and Shetty, who had won a bronze medal at the World Championships in August, will play the winner of the match between England’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy and Chinese Taipei’s Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han.

Dominant Indians

Against opponents they had never faced before, Shetty was relentless at the front court while Rankireddy unleashed his booming smashes from the back in a clinical show. Rankireddy and Shetty, the runners-up here in 2019, never looked in trouble as they got a firm grip on the match right at the start. The Indians led 2-0 early on before the Koreans managed to claw back to 7-7, after which Rankireddy and Shetty won four points in a row to lead 11-7 at the mid-game break. After the break, the Koreans tried to dictate the pace of the rallies, their returns getting higher and higher. Soon they were 16-13 up but an alert Shetty produced a precise return to keep his team in the game.

With the Indians making some errors, the Koreans narrowed the equation to 18-19 but Choi then committed an unforced error to hand two game points to the Indians. Shetty then sealed the game with a precise smash.

The Indian combination continued with their aggressive gameplan in the second game, leading 7-4 and then 11-9 at the interval. After trailing 10-15, the Koreans made errors to hand the Indians an 18-12 lead. After Choi hit wide to hand six match points to the Indians, Shetty sealed the win with a smash and raised his arms in triumph while Rankireddy broke into a dance.

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