Korea Open Final | Satwik and Chirag pair reached the final of Korea Open

Yeosu (Korea): Star Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stormed into the final of the Korea Open Super 500 badminton tournament with a thrilling straight-game win over world No.2 Liang Wei Kang and Wang Chang on Saturday. The world number three Indian pair registered a 21-15, 24-22 win over the Chinese pair in a 40-minute match at the Jinnam Stadium. Read also This was Satwik and Chirag’s first win after two consecutive defeats against the pair of Kang and Chang. Satwik and Chirag have won Indonesia Super 1000 and Swiss Open Super 500 titles this year. They will face either top seeds Fajr Alfian and Muhammad Riyan Ardianto of Indonesia or Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae of Korea in the final. The Chinese pair, who had won the Thailand and India Open this year, went into the tie with a 2-0 win-loss record against the Indian pair. The Indian pair, however, executed their plan brilliantly this time. The Indian pair, who won their last tournament, the Indonesia Open in June, will now have a chance to make it two titles in a row. Both the pairs started the game aggressively and the match was tied till the score was 5-5. The Indian pair then started increasing the lead and the score became 7-5 and then 14-8. Satwik hit his familiar smash but a mistake by Chirag near the backline saw the Chinese pair grab two points in a row. Chirag and Satwik dominated the match to take the score 19-12 and then easily won the first game. The second game also saw a close contest between the two pairs. Initially the scores were tied at 2-2 and 8-8. The Chinese players then played some wide shots, which would increase India’s lead to 14-9. The pair of Kang and Chang scored three points in a row. This was followed by a tough fight between the two pairs and the excitement grew as the match progressed. The score was tied at 18-18 and 19-19. Chirag then created a match point opportunity with a brilliant smash but Satwik committed a serve error to make it 20-20. Satwik once again created a match-point chance for India but Chang’s brilliant pass wasted the opportunity. Chang then hit the shuttle to the net to give India a third match point but a superb effort from Keng leveled the score again at 22-22. India then grabbed their fourth match point and this time Satwik made no mistake. (agency)