Lakshya Sen, Satwik-Chirag pair enter semifinals at Hong Kong Open, keep India's hopes alive

Hong Kong: Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen and the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty sailed into the semifinals of their respective events at the Hong Kong Open Super 500 badminton tournament here on Friday.

Sen got the better of compatriot Ayush 21-16 17-21 21-13 in a hard-fought men’s singles quarterfinal contest that lasted one hour and six minutes.

Rising Indian shuttler Ayush had caused a major upset on Thursday, ousting 2023 World Championships silver medallist Kodai Naraoka of Japan in a hard-fought three-game contest.

Sen will next face the winner of the other quarterfinal between third seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei and Alwi Farhan of Indonesia.

Earlier, continuing their fine run in the tournament, celebrated Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwik and Chirag cruised into the semifinal, defeating their Malaysian opponents in three games.

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Satwik and Chirag, who have been on a roll in the past few weeks, having clinched the BWF World Championships bronze medal recently, displayed superb co-ordination to overwhelm the fighting duo of Arif Junaidi and Roy King Yap 21-14, 20-22, 21-16 in a 64-minute contest of the USD 500,000 event.

The eighth-seeded Indian pair made a slow start, but once they found momentum at 12-all, they surged ahead with powerful smashes, conceding little to their opponents and clinching the last five points in a row.

The Malaysians found their rhythm in the second game and made a strong comeback, matching the Indian’s court coverage.

After trailing early one, they equalised at 6-all and after that never looked back managing to keep ahead of the eight-seeded Indian pair for most part before Satwik-Chirag drew parity at 20-all.

But the Malaysians managed to hang on to take the game make it 1-1.

In the decider, the Indians upped their game a few notches and didn’t allow the opponents to even once take the lead or threaten them to grab an easy win in the end.

On Thursday, the world No. 9 Satwik and Chirag had edged out Thailand’s Peeratchai Sukphun and Pakkapon Teeraratsakul to secure a place in the quarterfinals.