Korea Open Super 500: Sindhu, Srikanth enter semi-finals; Satwik-Chirag, Ashwini-Sikki bow out

Ace shuttlers world No 7 PV Sindhu and World Championships silver medallist Srikanth Kidambi kept Indian hopes alive by storming through to the women’s and men’s singles semi-finals respectively.

Meanwhile, the Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down in a closely-fought match against Korean duo Kang Minhyuk and Seo Jeungjae and the women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy also bowed out to local pair Eom Hye Won and Bo Ryeong Kimin in the Korea Open Super 500 quarter-finals on Friday.

In the second match of the day on Court 1 at the Palma Stadium in Suncheon, Srikanth outwitted South Korea’s Wan Ho Son 21-12, 18-21, 21-12 in a battle between two former world No 1s that lasted 62 minutes.

Ahead of the quarter-final, Srikanth had a 4-7 record versus the Korean, including three losses to him in their last three encounters.

On Friday though, the Indian played better badminton than his opponent, who is returning to international badminton after a two-year layoff. Although Srikanth won the opening game 21-12, the second game was far more competitive as Son came back strongly to win it 21-18. Having taken the match to a deciding third game, it was Srikanth who eventually prevailed to win the match 21-12, 18-21, 21-12 to go through to the semi-finals.

The fifth-seeded Indian, who will be making his second semifinal appearance in a row, will face Jonatan Christie in the semi-final, in what will be a repeat of the encounter at the recent Swiss Open semi-final that the Indian lost.

Meanwhile, in the women’s singles quarterfinal match, Sindhu got the better of familiar foe, Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan, who she also beat in the final of the Swiss Open last month. The 2019 world champion, who has won two Super 300 championships this season at the Syed Modi International and the Swiss Open, now leads the sixth seeded Thai 17-1 in 18 encounters

However, unlike the close first game in Swiss Open final recently, Sindhu was off to a flier in the first game, winning it 21-10. The second game was relatively harder as Busanan started to rally well. But it was Sindhu who claimed the win with a 21-16 score in the second game.

With this win, Sindhu reserved her place in what will be her fourth semi-final appearance of the season and is on course to potentially eye a victory in this tournament for a third time. She will face fourth ranked Korea’s An Seyoung who comfortably beat Japan’s Saena Kawakami 14-21, 7-21 in the quarter-final.

Meanwhile, the Indian doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were defeated 22-18, 18-21, 22-20 by the Korean pair of Kang Minhyuk and Seo Jeungjae in the men’s doubles quarter-final that lasted one hour and 17 minutes minutes at the Palma Stadium on Friday.

In what was a thrilling opening game, the relatively new Korean pairing of Kang-Seo eventually clinched it 22-18 after the Indian duo had managed to save one game point earlier.

Satwik-Chirag followed it up by displaying a stronger second half of the second game, after going on a scoring spree after the interval and holding off a late comeback by the Koreans to force a deciding third game.

The decider proved to be even more closely-fought as the Koreans prevailed against the Indian pair to register an excellent turnaround by saving two match points before winning 22-20, 18-21, 22-20 to pull off a thrilling three-game win.

Later in the day, the top-seeded Indian pair of Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy went down fighting 21-19, 21-17 to the local pair of Eom Hye Won and Bo Ryeong Kim in the women’s doubles quarter-final clash that lasted for 52 minutes.

After a competitive first half on display by the Indians in the opening game, the Koreans dominated to eventually win the first game 21-19. In the second game, the Eom-Kim continued their dominance throughout to win the second game 21-17 and defeat their Indian counterparts in straight games.