New Delhi: The star Indian shuttling pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chiraj Shetty, displayed yet another dominant performance to enter the BWF China Masters 750 finals.
The duo now stands just one win away from winning their second BWF Super 750 title.
The star Indian pair who won their first BWF Super 750 title last year in France, defeated the Chinese pair of He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu, in the semifinals by 21-15, 22-20, to book their place in the finals.
The top-seed Indian pair will now go up against another Chinese pair Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang in the finals.
The 🇮🇳 duo – Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty, storm into their 4️⃣th final of the year 🔥🏸
Watch them fight for the 👑, LIVE on #JioCinema & #Sports18.#JioCinemaSports #BWFonJioCinema #BWFonSports18 #ChinaMasters2023 pic.twitter.com/sHx9IpFSTS
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) November 26, 2023
As it happened
The duo of He and Ren, who won the Japan Masters last week, displayed their outstanding skill, particularly in the second game, but Satwik and Chirag showed incredible resilience to win the match.
When Satwik and Chirag, who faced the Chinese pair of He and Ren, for the first time, they produced another offensive performance, and their lightning-fast pace made things extremely difficult for their opponents.
The Indians led from the beginning and quickly went from 6-2 to 10-4. They didn’t make a mistake. The pair frequently gave their opponents those difficult angles.
The Indians, who had a commanding 11-6 lead going into the break, handled the Chinese admirably, as they delivered a flurry of smashes. This came following Satwik’s thunderous smash on a serve return.
After the restart, the Chinese team made an effort to regroup and scored four of the following five points to narrow the gap to 10–12.
But as soon as the Indians regained the serve, they launched another offensive, with Chirag frequently setting up opportunities with his blocks for Satwik to provide the final touch.
The Indians were nothing short of spectacular; their flawless back-and-forth synchronisation only made the Chinese pair’s anxieties worse, to take the first set home.
In the second game, after the Indians missed, the Chinese duo improved their frontcourt play to lead 8–6.
After making a few more mistakes during their serve return, He and Ren had a comfortable three-point lead at the half.
Upon restarting, the Indian failed to cover the backcourt, allowing the Chinese duo to lead 12–9. The Indians made an effort to concentrate on changing up the tempo and refining the angles during the rallies, and it paid off as they rallied to within 13–13.
After two ingenious baskets in the backcourt, the Indians led 15–15 and, when Ren drained a three-pointer, they were up two points at 18–16. At the end of another incredible rally, Satwik looped his backhand over to the back, making the score 19–17.
But then, with the score 19-19, Satwik sent the shuttle to the net twice. Chirag’s smash did, however, grant them one match point, which they blew. After Ren scored a goal, the Indians had their second match point, and Satwik once again produced his signature smash to guarantee their spot in the championship.
Post-match
“See you tomorrow” – Satwiksairaj Rankireddy…😅😅 pic.twitter.com/eZ6qzSS9Rx
— Tae Yeon (@SonnettaHamada) November 24, 2023
After the match, Satwik opened up about his thoughts during the match by saying, “We are feeling really good. The way we played throughout this week, felt like we have got back our rhythm. Like how we played at Asian Games here in China.”
