Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stunned top seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan in straight games to enter the semifinals of the French Open 2022 badminton tournament in Paris on Friday. (More Badminton News)
Seeded seventh in the Super 750 event, Rankireddy and Shetty won 21-12, 21-16 in a quarterfinal match that lasted 49 minutes. The Indian duo will face the Korean pair of Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho in the semifinals.
Rankireddy and Shetty are the only Indians left in the fray in the tournament. Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy and Sameer Verma lost in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals on Thursday.
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Prannoy, a Thomas Cup winner, went down fighting against China's Lu Guang Zu 19-21, 22-20, 19-21, while Sameer lost 18-21, 11-21 to Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the pre-quarterfinals. Kidambi Srikanth also crashed out of the tournament after losing to Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 21-19, 12-21 19-21 in a match that lasted one hour and 15 minutes.
Top Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth crashed out after losing to Rasmus Gemke of Denmark. Kidambi lost 21-19, 12-21, 19-21 in the match that lasted one hour and 15 minutes.
In the first game, Kidmabi made a remarkable fightback after trailing 10-16 as he won nine straight points to take a 19-16 lead before going 1-0 up. The scores were levelled at 10-10 in the second game and Gemke won six straight points to zoom ahead and take the match to the decider.
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The decider was a neck-to-neck affair before the Dane emerged victorious.
