Thailand Open 2024: Satwik-Chirag continues their dominant run, Maisnam's run halted

Ashwini-Tanisha also reached the semifinals of Thailand Open 2024.

Indian top-ranked doubles shuttlers continued their strong run at the Thailand Open 2024 on Friday, with the men’s duo of Satwik-Chirag and women’s doubles pair Ashwini-Tanisha advancing to the semifinals after hard-fought victories.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, seeded first in the men’s doubles event, defeated Malaysia’s Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap in straight games 21-7, 21-14 to book their place in the last four. The world No. #3 Indian pair were simply too superior for the 64th-ranked Malaysians in their quarter-final match.

Rankireddy and Shetty outclassed their opponents from the start, racing to a 9-2 lead in the opening game. The Malaysians had no answers to the Indians’ aggressive net play and superb stroke-making. The Indian pair wrapped up the first game 21-7 without breaking a sweat.

In the second game, Arif and Yap put up a better fight initially, staying level till 5-5. But the Indian top seeds raised their game again, going on a 10-3 run to open up a 15-8 lead. From there, they did not look back, closing out the game 21-14.

In women’s doubles, the fourth-seeded Indian duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto prevailed over sixth seeds Lee Yu Lim and Shin Seung Chan of South Korea in a grueling three-game battle that lasted an hour and 16 minutes.

Ponnappa and Crasto took the opening game 21-15 after both pairs were locked at 8-8 initially. The Indians finished strongly to pocket the first game. In the second game, the Koreans fought back to level the match, edging ahead in a close final stage to take it 23-21.

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The decider was an epic tussle with both teams trading body blows. Neither could break away decisively until 19-19 when the Indians raised their level under pressure. A couple of sensational winners from Crasto gave them match point, which they converted to win 21-19.

However, it was the end of the road for Meiraba Luwang Maisnam in the men’s singles quarterfinals after a 12-21, 5-21 loss to home favourite and world No. #8 Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand. The 23-year-old Indian started brightly but was blown away by Vitidsarn’s aggression and shot-making abilities. Earlier in the tournament, Maisnam had scored an upset win over fifth seed H.S. Prannoy.

In the semifinals on Saturday, Rankireddy and Shetty will face a tough test against Ming Che Lu and Tang Kai-Wei of Chinese Taipei, while Ponnappa and Crasto take on the top-seeded Thai pair of Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai.

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