Satwiksairaj, Chirag reach men's doubles semifinals of Thailand Open

India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty qualified for the men's doubles semifinals after registering a hard-fought win over qualifiers Choi Solgyu and Seo Seung Jae of Korea at the Thailand Open in Bangkok yesterday. 

The unseeded Indian combination fought valiantly for exactly an hour to get the better of their Korean rivals 21-17, 17-21, 21-19 in a quarterfinal duel. 

The win was Rankireddy and Shetty's maiden win over the Korean pair. The



16th-ranked Indians will play against another Korean pair of Ko Sung Hyun and  Shin Baek Cheol in the semifinals today.

In the Men's Singles quarterfinals, B. Sai Praneeth lost to Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan 18-21, 12-21. With this loss, India's campaign ends in Men's Singles.

Rankireddy combine with Ashwini Ponnappa also faced defeat to Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino of Japan in the last-eight round of the mixed doubles.