Satwik-Chirag storm into second consecutive final

Disappointment swept the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium when HS Prannoy lost 15-21, 5-21 in 42 minutes to China’s Shi Yu Qi in the men's semi-final. Fans who had turned up to witness home favourite win on Saturday fell quiet after the eighth seed lost tamely.

- Sandip Sikdar

Less than an hour later, the despondency of Indian badminton aficionados had turned into jubilation as Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty convincingly won the men’s doubles semi-final at the India Open to qualify for a second successive final on the BWF World Tour, having also reached the Malaysia Open summit clash last week.

The Asian Games gold medallists were on fire as they hammered old rivals and former world champions Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia 21-18, 21-14 in 45 minutes. In the final of the $850,000 event -- they won here two years ago -- they will face Korea's Kang Min-hyuk and Seo Seung-jae.

“It was a good win today. Going into the match, we knew it would be a tough game because we have always had some really close games. Even this time, it was quite close; until 17-all it was anybody's game. We could have been a little calmer probably. Luckily at the end we stayed calm and won that,” said Chirag.

“Then in the second game we started off a bit slow, but eventually got our rhythm back. The crowd support has been tremendous."