Indian men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty fought hard to advance to the final, but it was curtains for HS Prannoy in the men’s singles semifinals of the Indonesia Open World Tour Super 1000 event on Saturday.
The Commonwealth Games gold medalist duo of Satwik and Chirag, seeded seventh, overcame a game deficit to beat unseeded Min Hyuk Kang and Seung Jae Seo of Korea 17-21 21-19 21-18 to seal their maiden Super-1000 final berth.
The win also extended their overall head-to-head record over Kang and Seo to 3-2.
World No 6 Satwik and Chirag will face the winners Pramudya Kusumawardana and Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan of Indonesia and second seeds Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh of Malaysia.
However, Prannoy failed to rise to the occasion against top seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, going down 15-21 15-21.
Prannoy played the catch-up game from the onset. He showed sparks in between riding on his cross-court smashes but Axelsen’s drop shots and court coverage was good enough to help him take the lead.
The script unfolded in the same manner in the next game as Axelsen continued to maintain his upper hand and pocket the game and match in an identical manner.
It was Prannoy’s sixth loss against the Dane in the international circuit as against two wins.
The men’s doubles began on an even keel before the Korean pair surged ahead to 6-3.
Once they conceded the lead, Satwik and Chirag were forced to play a catch-up game.
The Indians used their aggressive play to reduce the margin to 15-19 and then 17-20 before Kang and Seo kept their composure to pocket the first game, courtesy an unforced error.
The Indians looked more purposeful after the change of ends and took an early 6-3 lead before racing to 11-4 with a flurry of fast-paced shots and body smashes in the second game.
Satwik and Chirag were also helped by some bad line calls and unforced errors from the Koreans.
But Kang and Seo didn’t give up and clawed their way back in the game to reduce the gap to 18-15.
But the Indians managed to hold on to their nerves and played sensibly to pocket the second game and level the scores.
The decider went neck and neck till the first five points before Satwik and Chirag pocketed seven straight points to race to a 12-5 lead.
The Koreans tried hard to bounce back and at one time levelled the scores at 16-16 but that is when Satwik and Chirag stepped it up and closed out the game and the match.
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