China Open: Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy March Into Men's Doubles Semi-Finals

Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy beat the Chinese pair of Li Junhui-Liu Yu Chen 21-19, 21-15 to enter men's doubles semi-finals of the China Open on Friday. The Indian men's doubles pair had earlier beaten Li Junhui-Liu Yu Chen in the Thailand Open 2019. Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy have now taken a 2-1 lead in the head-to-head record against Li Junhui-Liu Yu Chen. The pair of Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy had earlier lost the final of French Open 2019 to top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia.

Highlights | In-form Rankireddy and Shetty decisively knock out 2018 world champions Li and Liu at the Fuzhou China Open 2019 #HSBCBWFbadminton #HSBCRacetoGuangzhou pic.twitter.com/psnxFn0SaM

— BWF (@bwfmedia) November 8, 2019

In the China Open quarter-finals, the first game remained neck and neck till the first eight points. The Indian pair however took a slender 15-13 advantage in the first game before winning it at 21-19.

The second game was closely fought contest till the first 12 points before Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy upped their tempo and clinched consecutive points to close the game and win the match in 43 minutes. 

Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will take on the top seeded Indonesian pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in the semi-finals.