New Delhi, Jan 18 India’s challenge at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2025 came to an end as men’s doubles combination of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down against world no. 2 Nur Izzuddin and Goh Sze Fei of Malaysia in the semifinals of the HSBC BWF World Tour Super 750 event at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall here on Saturday.
The Indian combination, making a comeback of sorts on the BWF circuit following an injury to Satwik, made a strong start against the Malaysian but struggled to counter the game plan of their opponent at the back end of both games and lost 21-18, 21-14 in 37 minutes.
The third seeds will now face Malaysia Open champions Kim Won Ho and Seo Seung Jae of Korea, who defeated fifth seeds Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia 22-20, 21-19.
On Sunday, Olympic champion An Se Young of South Korea will take on Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong in the women’s singles final while the French combination of Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue will aim to clinch their first Super 750 crown against second seeds Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin of China.
The women’s doubles final will be played between eighth seeds Kim Hye Jeong and Kong Hee Yong of South Korea and Japan’s Arisa Igarashi and Ayako Sakuramoto.
The KD Jadhav Indoor Hall was packed to the brim in anticipation of another strong showing by Satwik and Chirag. The world no. 9 combination, who had reached the semi-finals of the Malaysia Open Super 1000 last week, started strong and it looked like they were in control of the opening game as they led 15-12. But Goh and Izzuddin began pressing the home favourites at the net and errors started to creep in.
Goh and Izzuddin clinched seven straight points from there on and a smash error from Satwik handed the Malaysians the first game.
In the second game, the Indians lost eight of the first 10 points before a series of five consecutive points brought them back in the match. However, Goh and Izzuddin were quick in attacking the Indians’ serve and scored quite a few quick points to put them under pressure and ensured that the 2022 Asian Games gold medallists could not make a comeback by relying on their big smashes.
“I think we should have closed down in the first game but credit to them they were really good in the service situations, which we didn't really expect because probably we didn't prepare for it. Having said that, we should have been little more calmer,” said Chirag.
Earlier, in the women’s singles semi-final, Pornpawee Chocuwong came back from the brink to beat Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan 11-21, 24-22, 21-19 while top seed An Se Young was made to work hard for her 21-19, 21-16.
Chochuwong looked down and out while trailing 14-19 in the second game, having lost the opener rather tamely. But she kept pushing herself to retrieve every attacking stroke Miyazaki played to close the gap within a point. She then saved three match points, forcing the Japanese to commit errors at the end of long rallies to force a decider.
In the decider, the Thailand shuttler was the more composed competitor among the two. She was patient on crucial points and that made the ultimate difference in a match that lasted an hour and 13 minutes.
--IANS
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