Doubles Coach Vishnu Ends National Role

India's top doubles pairing barely broke a sweat in ousting the Korean duo of Jin Yong and Kang Min Hyuk to advance to the semi-finals

- Sandip Sikdar

NEW DELHI: There was an unusual lull at the KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium here on Friday. With crowd favourite PV Sindhu and Kiran George getting knocked out in the quarter-finals, fans were feeling a little disappointed at the $950,000 India Open. But all hope wasn't lost.

As is the case in most badminton events these days, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty continued India's run into the business end of the Super 750 tournament, raising the decibel levels around the arena.

Rankireddy and Shetty barely broke a sweat to oust South Korean combine, Jin Yong and Kang Min Hyuk (who had won India Open last year with Seo Seung-Jae), 21-10, 21-17 in 41 minutes to advance to the men's doubles semi-finals.

"Right from the get-go, we were all guns blazing. That's what we wanted to do. As you could see in the end, if we were a bit slow, they could capitalise by moving the shuttle around. We wanted to prevent them from getting back into the game. I'm happy we stuck to the plan until the end," said Shetty.

Guided by Malaysian coach Tan Kim Her, Rankireddy and Shetty stayed on course for their second consecutive India Open final. Playing a clinical match against the South Koreans, who had upset the top seeds and world No. 1 combine Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark in the opener, the Asian Games gold medallists raced to a 9-1 lead and then controlled proceedings to pocket the game in 18 minutes.