BWF French open | Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty enter men’s doubles final

India's top men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Japanese duo of Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe to advance to the finals of the French Open BWF Super 750 in Paris on Saturday. Satwik and Chirag held 0-2 head-to-head record against the Japanese pair before the semi-final, having lost to them at the 2018 Indonesia Open and 2017 World Championship.

However, the world number 11 Indian pair was not tested a lot in the first game, which they won 21-11 in 15 minutes. A tightly fought second game went the way of the Indians by 25-23. In the summit clash, they will now take on top-seeded Indonesian pair of Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo.

Earlier, in the men's doubles quarterfinals, it was a similar story for Rankireddy and Shetty as they had easier in the first game than in the second. They took on the Danish pair of Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen and sealed the first game at 21-13 by winning four points in a row. The Danes came back stronger in the second game as they levelled the scores three times heading into the climax, at 10-10, 16-16 and at 19-19. However, the Indian pair won back-to-back points to seal the match at 22-20.

Rankireddy and Shetty had reached their first-ever World Tour Super 750 quarterfinal in Pairs in 2017, qualified for the semifinals last year, and did even better this time around. The duo is the only remaining Indian representation at the French Open, after P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal were knocked out at the quarterfinal stage.