China Open: Satwik-Chirag go down fighting in semifinals

Bengaluru, November 9: India's campaign in the Chian Open badminton ended after the loss of men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in the semifinal.

The Indian duo went down fighting 16-21, 20-22 to three-time defending champions Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia in the last-four stage of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) sanctioned $700,000 prize-money tournament at Fuzhou on Saturday (November 9).

The world number 9 Indian pair fough hard before going down to to the top seeds in the BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament. This was the eighth successive loss for Satwik and Chirag against the Indonesian pair.

JUST IN: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lose to world no.1 pair Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo 16-21, 20-22 in the semifinals of the #ChinaOpenSuper750 pic.twitter.com/t6Xw4bBdE0

— ESPN India (@ESPNIndia) November 9, 2019

Despite the loss, it was an impressive week for Satwik and Chirag, who notched up some stunning wins, beating sixth seeded Japanese pair of Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe in the second round and outwitting third seeded Chinese pairing of Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen in the quarterfinals.

Satwik and Chirag, who had won their maiden Super 500 title at the Thailand Open in August before reaching the finals at the French Open Super 750, played their hearts out during the 40-minute final but it was not enough in the end.

This was Satwik and Chirag's third loss this year against the world number 1 pair.

(With inputs from PTI)