BWF French Open 2022 Badminton: Chirag Shetty & Satwiksairaj Rankireddy enter the semis

Paris, Oct 28: India's star doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy continued their golden run as they triumphed over World No. 1 Japan's Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in straight games 23-21, 21-18 in the men's doubles quarter-finals of the French Open 2022 BWF Super 750 tournament on Friday (October 28).

With this win, the duo progressed to the semi-final where they will take on Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho of South Korea on Saturday (October 29).

The seventh-seeded pair had previously knocked out the Japanese duo in the quarterfinals of the BWF World Championships 2022 as well.

The world No.8 pair of Chirag and Satwiksairaj began strong and raced to a 20-16 lead in round one but Takuro and Yugo saved four game points to draw level at 20-all. However, the Commonwealth Games 2022 champions held their nerves to take the all-important lead and won it 23-21.

The second game proved equally engaging as Hoki and Kobayashi, currently, the top men's doubles pair in the world badminton rankings looked primed to draw level with an 18-16 lead but the Indian pair won five points on the trot to close out the contest.
It was Chirag and Satwiksairaj's third win against the Japanese pair in four meetings.

The duo are the only shuttlers continuing India's challenge in the tournament. Earlier the women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayathri Gopichand lost to Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai (21-23, 20-22) of Thailand in the first round itself.

India's challenge in singles came to an end in the second round of the competition as HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikkanth and Sameer Verma lost their respective second-round games.

When & Where to watch?

Timing: The action of the BWF French Open 2022 - Semi-Finals on Saturday (October 29) will begin at 1:30 PM (IST) onwards.

TV Channel: Catch all the action LIVE & Exclusive on Sports18 1 SD & HD

Live Streaming: Voot & Jio TV