India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, on Friday, reached the men’s doubles semi-finals at the 2023 China Masters Super 750 event.

The top-seeded Indian pair eased past Indonesia’s Leo Carnando and Daniel Marthin 21-16, 21-14 in 46 minutes.

Rankireddy and Shetty had beaten Carnando and Marthin on all three previous meetings before. It was an even start to the match with neither pair taking a big lead in the opening exchanges.

The Indian pair won three points on the trot to open up a 12-9 lead only for the Indonesians to level the scores. Rankireddy and Shetty pulled away and won the opening game 21-16.

The top seeds carried forward the momentum into the second game racing to a 11-7 lead at the interval. Though Carnando and Marthin won points regularly, they could not close down the gap as Rankireddy and Shetty secured a routine win.

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This was the Indian pair’s first straight-games win over Carnando and Marthin. Rankireddy and Shetty will now take on China’s He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu in the semi-finals on Saturday.

HS Prannoy exits

On the other hand, HS Prannoy was outplayed by Japan’s Kodai Naraoka in the men’s singles quarter-finals. The 31-year-old down 9-21, 14-21 in straight games to bow out of the competition.

Prannoy looked far from his best in the contest and the Japanese shuttler kept drawing errors from the Indian at his will.

The eighth seed struggled right from the start as he trailed 5-11 at the first mid-game break. He could add only four more points before surrendering the first game.

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Prannoy came out with some renewed confidence in the second game and kept Naraoka nt in check as the duo stood level at 10-10 and later 12-12. But a slew of errors followed and the Indian found himself trailing 13-19 within the blink of an eye.

There was no coming back for HS Prannoy as Naraoka wrapped up the match in 43 minutes.