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The young Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty continue their giant-killing run at the Indonesia Masters 2018 as they upset the fourth seeds and World No. 6 men’s doubles duo of Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding of Denmark to reach the semi-finals of this BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament at Jakarta, Indonesia on Friday.
The World No. 32 pair showed tremendous grit and resilience to pull off a 23-21, 15-21, 21-19 win over the Danes in 1 hour 6 minutes.
This is the second consecutive win over the Danes for the Indian pair. They had prevailed over the higher-ranked team to reach the quarter-finals of the French Open Superseries last October.
Their latest win also ensured that they reached the semi-finals of such a major tournament for the first time in their fledgling career.
The two had been on a roll at this tournament. This was their third consecutive top-20 win at the Indonesia Masters. They started off with an effortless 21-15, 21-17 win over the eighth seeds and World No. 10 pair of Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko.
In the second round, they were just as impressive and registered a 21-17, 21-16 win over the 17th ranked team of Liao Min Chun and Su Ching Heng.
They began their quarter-final match brilliantly on Friday and raced ahead to establish a 10-3 lead before the Danes came fighting back to reduce the deficit. The young Indians too helped the Danes with a few unforced errors in their urgency to win the points.
The game was levelled at 17-17 following which the Indians had two game points to go up to 20-18. Rankireddy and Shetty finally converted their fourth game point to bag the opener 23-21.
The second game belonged totally to the Danes, who motored ahead to 11-2 before the Indians started finding their rhythm. The Indians cut down the big lead to trail by six points at 11-17, but failed to prevent the Danes from taking the second game 21-15.
The decider was on level terms till 6-6 but the fourth seeds imposed their game right after that to build an 11-8 lead at the mid-game interval. They even led 16-13 after which the Indians settled into the game and brought forth their aggressive smashes.
They levelled matters at 16-16 and it was hard to pick a side till 19-19. The young pair displayed a lot of maturity and composure to take two points on the trot from there and grab the win.
They will now face the top seeds and World No. 1 pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia for a place in the final.
Saina beats Sindhu
In a blockbuster all-Indian quarter-final match earlier in the day, World No. 12 Saina Nehwal showed her tactical prowess as she carved out a 21-13, 21-19 win over the second seed and World No. 3 PV Sindhu. Nehwal glided on the court effortlessly and ensured that the Rio Olympic silver medallist never gets to play her fast and naturally aggressive game.
This is the first time since the World Championships in August that Nehwal has reached the semi-finals of any tournament. She will next take on the fourth seed and Malaysia Masters champion Ratchanok Intanon.
