Korea Open 2023 Quarter-Finals Highlights: Satwik-Chirag storm into semifinals

Hello and welcome to the Khel Now's live blog for the Korea Open 2023 semi-finals! Stay tuned for live updates as players fight for place in the semis.

Asian champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty is the only Indian pair to qualify for the quarter-finals of Korea Open 2023. All the other Indian shuttlers in their respective categories exited the tournament. India’s top ranked HS Prannoy and upcoming youngster Priyanshu Rajawat fought hard in the men’s singles – stretching their R16 respective clashes to three games but couldn’t pull of a victory.

Priyanshu in particular put up his best performance against top seed and WR-4 Kodai Naraoka. After losing the opening game tamely, the Indian brought out his ‘A’ game with a mixture of both the attacking and retrieving skills. In the decider, Priyanshu started with a three-point lead (6-3) but with experience, Naraoka came back to take the lead and in the end progressed to the quarter-finals with a 21-14, 18-21, 21-17 win.

Priyanshu Rajawat’s third game progression – (6-3) -> (12-11) -> (13-19) -> (17-19) -> (17-21). He had the lead till the mid-game interval and then lost flurry of points. However, Priyanshu did make a comeback in the latter stages but that wasn’t enough.

The Orleans Masters winner, before the Korea Open, played against Ginting at the Indonesia Open where he took the home favourite to the decider. The 21-year-old has shown good improvements in his gameplay and with experience will get to see better results going forward.

All England 2023 semi-finalists Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand went down tamely in straight games against second seeds Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee, suffering a 11-21, 4-21 loss. The Indian duo received a walkover in the opening round and couldn’t put up a fight in the pre-quarters. They returned to the circuit after a long break but are yet to show consistency this season.

Next up, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are set to take on fifth seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi. The Indian WR-3 pair enjoy a favourable (3-1) h2h record against the Japanese pair.

India’s performance on day 3 of Korea Open 2023

Men’s Singles (Round of 16)

HS Prannoy lost to Lee Cheuk Yeu (15-21, 21-19, 18-21)

Priyanshu Rajawat lost to Kodai Naraoka (14-21, 21-18, 17-21)

Men’s Doubles (Round of 16)

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty beat He Ji Ting/Zhou Hao Dong (21-17, 21-15)

Women’s Doubles (Round of 16)

Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand lost to Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee (11-21, 4-21)

Mixed Doubles (Round of 16)

Rohan Kapoor/Sikki Reddy lost to Feng Yan Zhe/Huang Dong Ping (15-21, 12-21)