Indonesia Open 2023: Satwik-Chirag pair reaches final, Pranay loses
Jakarta. The experienced Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Ranki Reddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Korean pair of Min Hyuk Kang and Seung Jae Seo in the semi-finals of the Indonesia Open World Tour Super 1000 badminton event to seal their place in the title clash, but here on Saturday. HS Prannoy’s campaign in the men’s singles came to an end with a semi-final defeat. The seventh seeded Indian pair made a spectacular comeback after losing the first game against the unseeded Korean pair in the semi-finals. The pair of Satwik and Chirag won the match 17-21 21-19 21-18 which lasted one hour and seven minutes. This is the third win of the pair of Satwik and Chirag in five matches between these two pairs.
The Indian pair, ranked sixth in the world rankings, has reached the final of a Super 1000 level event for the first time. In the title clash, the pair will take on the winner of the semifinal between Indonesia’s Pramudya Kusumwardhana and Jeremiah Erik Yoche Yakub Rambitan and second seeded Malaysian pair of Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh. Prannoy failed to raise his game against top seed Viktor Axelsen. The Danish player won the match 21-15 21-15. Axelsen took an early lead over Prannoy in both the games and the Indian kept chasing his scores. This is Prannoy’s sixth defeat against the Danish player in international matches. Earlier in the men’s doubles, both the pairs fought evenly at the start of the match but the Korean pair took a 6-3 lead.
After the Korean pair took the lead, the Indian pair just kept chasing it. Satwik and Chirag tried to reduce the lead with aggressive play but after the score was 20-17, the Korean pair took advantage of their mistake to win the first game. After losing the first game, the Commonwealth Games champion came back strongly in the second game to lead 6-3 and then 11-4. The pair of Kang and Seo then made a good comeback to make it 18-15. The Indian pair used their experience to win the game. The score was 5-5 in the third game but after that the Indian pair won seven consecutive points to take a 12-5 lead. The Korean pair did not give up and made a brilliant comeback to make the score 16-16. Chirag and Satwik then showed their mettle under pressure and won.
