The Indian badminton men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty entered the semifinals of the 2023 Korea Open Super 500 with a clinical win over Japan’s Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi.
Rankireddy and Shetty won 21-14, 21-17 to enter their first-ever semifinal at the Korea Open.
Hoki and Kobayashi started off well in the contest and took a 4-2 lead as the Indian duo struggled to find their rhythm early on.
But, errors started overflowing from the Japanese racquets as Rankireddy and Shetty took a five-point advantage with the score reading 11-5 in their favour at the mid-game interval.
The third-seeded pair continued their merry ways post the break and extended their lead to nine points at 15-6.
This little passage of saw Rankireddy register a stunning 500kmph smash — the fastest-ever recorded in an official match. This came just days after he found himself in the Guinness Books of World Records for the fastest badminton shot ever recorded at 565kmph.
Hoki and Kobayashi did threaten a comeback, stitching together a few points back to back, but eventually surrendered the first game 14-21.
The second and final game too followed a same pattern with the fifth seeded Japanese racing to an early lead before the Indians heading into the break with an 11-9 advantage.
Rankireddy and Shetty held on to the lead for the remainder of the match to take second game 21-17 and make their way into the semifinals.
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