Hong Kong Open Badminton: Satvik-Chirag arrives in quarter-finals, next match with Malaysian pair

Hong Kong: India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty continued their good performance and defeated Thailand’s Pirachai Sukfun and Pakkapon Tiraratsakul on Thursday to enter the quarter -finals of the US $ 500,000 Hong Kong Open Super 500 Badminton Tournament.

The eighth seeded Indian pair made a comeback after losing the first game and defeated the non-India Thai pair 18-21, 21-15, 21-11 in a 63-minute match.

Satwik and Chirag, who won bronze medals in the World Championships last month, will face Malaysia’s Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap.

The Indian pair started slow and in the first game she was trailing 8–11, after which she returned to score 18–18, but the Thai pair scored the last three points to name the first game.

Satvik and Chirag played better in the second game. At the beginning of this game, however, he faced a tough challenge and at one time the score was 2-2 and then 7-7. The Indian pair took an 11–10 lead till the interval and took the match to a decisive game, taking a consecutive lead.

The third game was one-sided in which Satwik and Chirag took a 7-2 lead and did not look back.