Satwiksairaj RankiReddy and Chirag Shetty making a mark in Men’s doubles for India
The young Indian pair of Satwiksairaj RankiReddy and Chirag
Shetty went down fighting to world number 1 Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya
Sukamujlio in two straight sets by 18-21, 16-21. RankiReddy and Chirag Shetty could
not start off to perfect as the World number 1 did not allow the Indian pair to
play with aggressive intent and took a 7-1 lead.
The Indian pair fought back strongly to make a match out of
it and levelled the score at 10-10. At the interval, Gideon and Sukamujlio had
a slender 11-10 lead. After the interval, the Indian pair showed great fighting
spirit to level the scores at 17-17 with smart play by RankiReddy and well
supported by Chirag.
Indonesian took 3 points in succession to be at 20-17. The
Indian saved one match point but committed an error to hand the first game to
World number 1.
Again, in the 2nd game, the Indians started off
slowly again before levelling the scores at 6-6. The two pairs went toe to toe till
10-10 before the Indonesian pair took a 11-10 lead at the interval. From 12-12 onwards,
Marcus and Kevin took 6 points in succession to make 18-13. The Indian pair
could not match the speed of the Indonesian and lost the game and match at
16-21.
This is the first time that an Indian doubles pair reached
the finals of Super 750 tournament. In men’ singles, Kidambi Srikanth had the
French Open title in 2017, while Saina Nehwal was the other Indian women to
make into the finals played in 2012.
The unseeded pair of Satwiksairaj RankiReddy and Chirag
Shetty played some superb badminton in the French Open tournament. They
defeated J Maas and R Tabeling of Netherlands in two straight sets at 21-16,
21-14.
It was a sensational performance by the young Indian pair as
they defeated the World Champion Mohammad Ashan and Hendra Setwian in three
sets by 21-18, 18-21, 21-13. They were superb with their smash shots which stunned
the World number 2.
In the quarterfinals, RankiReddy and Chirag defeated
European champion Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen by 21-13, 22-20. It was a
dominating performance by young Indian pair who won the first set easily. In
the second game, both pairs fought for each point, but held their nerves to win
game and match at 22-20.
They proved their worth again by stunning the 5th
seed Hiryouki Endo and Yuti Watanbe in two straight sets by 11-21, 23-21. It
was a brilliant performance by the Indian pair who were brilliant in the first
game. In the 2nd game, it was a close fight right from word go and held
their nerves to win the match at 23-21.
Chirag and RankiReddy came into limelight after winning the
Super 500 Thailand Open 2019 played this year. In that tournament, too they defeated
top ranked players which included F Alfian and Aridanto of Indonesia in the 2nd
round.
After winning their maiden Super 500 tournament, the young
pair moved up to number 9th in the rankings. Chirag and RankiReddy have
improved a lot which makes the other doubles pair in the world stunned.
If the young pair can continue their impressive performance,
then this will do good for them in qualifying for the Olympics.
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| Chirag and RankiReddy finish runners up |
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