Thailand Open: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty reach final of men's doubles

Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty showcased a spirited performance against Korea's Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol to book their place in the summit showdown of the men's doubles event of the ongoing Thailand Open BWF Super-500 Tournament at the Indoor Stadium Huamark in Bangkok on Saturday. 

After comfortably winning the first game, Rankireddy and Shetty went down fighting in the second before they rebounded strongly to eventually seal a 22-20, 22-24, 21-9 win over Hyun and Cheol in a thrilling last-four clash that lasted a little over one hour. 

The top-ranked Indian pair will now square off with third-seeded Chinese team of Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen in the final. Jun Hui and Yu Chen had earlier eased past Japanese duo of Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe 21-13, 22-20 in another semi-final match that lasted just 38 minutes. 

With the win, Rankireddy and Shetty have also made it to their maiden men's doubles final in a Super 500 tournament or above.

Rankireddy and Shetty's previous best performance came when they won Hyderabad Open Super 100 tournament in 2018 before they made it to the final of Syed Modi International Super 300 tournament in the same year. 

On Friday, the Indian duo rebounded strongly from the second game down against the Korean pair of Choi Solgyu and Seo Seung Jae to clinch a 21-17, 17-21, 21-19 victory and storm into the semi-final of the tournament.

In the mixed doubles event, Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa crashed out in the quarter-finals after slumping to a 13-21, 15-21 defeat at the hands of third seeds Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino of Japan in a clash that lasted just 28 minutes.