Korea Open: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty Book Spot in Final – News18

Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated second seeds Wei Keng Liang and Chang Wang of China, who are the 2021 world champions in men’s doubles, to book their place in the final of the Korea Open Super 500 tournament.

Satwiksairaj and Chirag defeated Wei Keng Liang and Chang Wang 21-15, 24-22 in one hour and 20 mins.

The third seed Indian duo will take on either Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto or Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae of South Korea in the summit clash.

Satwiksairaj and Chirag had entered the semifinals with a straight game win over Japan’s Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi with the world No.3 Indian combination, took just 40 minutes to get the better of the fifth seeded Japanese pair 21-14 21-17.

Satwik and Chirag are now India’s flag bearers in the tournament after the premature exits of PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth among others.

Notably, results at the Korea Open count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The qualification window for badminton started on May 1 this year.

(More details awaited…)