Malaysia Open 2024: Satwik-Chirag storm into semis, Ashwini-Tanisha crashes out

Satwik-Chirag continued their dominant run over Ren Xiang Yu and He Ji Ting of China.

World No. 2 Indian doubles pair Satwik-Chirag have continued their winning mojo from last year as they stormed into the semifinals of the ongoing Malaysia Open 2024 Super 1000. The star Indian duo dished out a dominant on-court performance to win the match 21-11 21-8. However, another Indian doubles pair Tanisha Crasto/Ashwini Ponnappa bowed out from the quarterfinals stage with straights games defeat against Japan opponents.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who had a sensational season in 2023 with six titles, advanced with straight games win over China’s Ren Xiang Yu and He Ji Ting. The Indian duo produced a near-perfect game as they were lightening in their exchanges.

They inserted pace in the rallies and also mixed things well to make it a one-sided affair. Satwik-Chirag opened up a huge gap of 7-0 in the first game itself which left the Chinese with no other option other than catching-up.

Subsequently, the Indian pair went into the mid-game break with a 11-2 lead and finished up the game swiftly (21-11). In the second game even with a change of sides, there was no change in the momentum as both Satwik-Chirag wrapped up the game before the Chinese could reach double digits.

The Satwik-Chirag pairing has definitely carved out a strong place in the men’s doubles category which was displayed in the exemplary way they played today. Incidentally, Satwik-Chirag had dominated Ren and Ting in the China Masters 2023 as well to finish the game in straight sets on that occasion.

Unfortunately, the women’s pairing of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto suffered a 15-21, 13-21 defeat against Japan’s Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi of Japan. Earlier, the world no. 24 Indians had created a positive optimism in the minds of Indian badminton fans after stunning former world no. 1 and twice world champions Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara on Thursday.

But on this occasion, the duo did not have any answer to the attacking barrage of Rin and Kie. Eventually, the match ended within a short span of 39 minutes. Interestingly, this is the second time the duo has lost against Rin and Kie, having suffered a narrow loss in the finals of the Syed Modi International back in December.

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