Hong Kong Open: Satwiksairaj-Chirag march to first finals of 2025

Hong Kong, September 13 (ANI): India's popular men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stormed into the finals of the ongoing Hong Kong Open badminton tournament on Saturday.
Satwik and Chirag managed their first-ever appearance in the final for this year, defeating Chinese Taipei duo of 21-17, 21-15 in just 38 minutes.
India's two-time world championship medalists duo will now face sixth seeds Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang of China in the finale, as per a Badminton Association of India (BAI) press note.
On Friday, Satwik and Chirag earned their spot in the final four with a win over Malaysia's Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap in an exciting three-game contest. The Indians took the opening game 21-14 against Malaysia's Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap, before narrowly conceding the second 20-22. They bounced back in the decider, sealing it 21-16 to book their semifinal berth.
Satwik and Chirag had to settle for a bronze medal in the World Championships following a heartbreaking loss to China's Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi in the semifinals by 19-21, 21-18, 12-21 back in August. The first two games remained a closely knitted affair, but the Chinese pair ran rampant, dominating the Indian duo in the decider. This marked the pair's second World Championships medal, after a bronze medal back in 2022 at Tokyo.
Earlier, the Indian Paris Olympics semifinalist, Lakshya Sen, also made it to the quarterfinals on Thursday.
India's top-ranked singles player and world No. 20 Lakshya Sen beat HS Prannoy, 34th in the men's singles badminton rankings, 15-21, 21-18, 21-10 in an hour and eight minutes, as reported by Olympics.com.Competing at the Hong Kong Coliseum, Lakshya Sen made a sluggish start, allowing HS Prannoy to dictate terms and pocket the opening game.
Lakshya, the Paris 2024 semi-finalist, began the second game slowly too, trailing 11-9 at the break before clawing back to 13-all. Though Prannoy edged ahead at 18-17 again, Lakshya earned four straight points to snatch the game and force a decider.
The decider followed a familiar script with Lakshya Sen starting cautiously before finding his rhythm to lead 11-8 at the interval. He then conceded only two more points en route to wrapping up the match with ease and earning his sixth win in nine meetings against Prannoy. (ANI)