Chirag-Satwik stun No.1 pair of Hoki-Kobayashi in quarters

India’s Chirag Shetty (left) and Satwik Rankireddy. Pic/BAI MEDIA

Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stunned top seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan in straight games to enter the semi-finals of the French Open badminton tournament here on Friday.

Seeded seventh in the Super 750 event, Rankireddy and Shetty won 21-12, 21-16 in a quarter-final match that lasted 49 minutes. The Indian duo will face the Korean pair of Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho in the semi-finals.

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Rankireddy and Shetty are the only Indians left in the fray in the tournament. Earlier, HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma and Kidambi Srikanth bowed out of the men's singles. Prannoy went down fighting against China's Lu Guang Zu 19-21, 22-20, 19-21, while Sameer lost 18-21, 11-21 to Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the pre-quarterfinals stage. Srikanth also crashed out after losing to Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 21-19, 12-21, 19-21.

Muthusamy in semis

Meanwhile, rising Indian shuttler Sankar Muthusamy on Friday assured himself of a medal in the BWF World Junior Championships as he reached the men's U-19 singles semi-finals after defeating Hu Zhe An of China in Santander (Spain). Seeded fourth in the tournament, Muthusamy won 21-18, 8-21, 21-16 in a quarter-final match.

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