Bangkok: India’s Satvikasairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa gave a tough fight to fifth seed Peng Soon Chan and Malaysia’s Liu Ying Goh in a three-game competition to enter the mixed doubles semi-finals of the Toyota Thailand Open badminton tournament on Friday.
This uncapped Indian duo beat the world by working hard for an hour and 15 minutes. 6 Malaysian rivals 18-21, 24-22, 22-20 in a nail-biting quarterfinal.
World No. 22 Rankireddy and Ponnappa will go up against the winners of the last quarterfinal match between top seed Dekapol Puranukuro and the Korean duo of Thailand’s Sapseer Teertanachai and Sung Hyun Ko and Hye Won Eom.
Sixth-seeded Indian PV Sindhu will take fourth place from Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon in the women’s singles quarter-finals, while Sameer Verma will play third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the men’s singles final-eight round on the day.
After this, Rankireddy will face Malaysia’s Yu Sin Ong and Ei Yi Teo in the men’s doubles quarterfinals along with Chirag Shetty.
“I expect more European players to play badminton at this level,” Marin said.
Marin will face a semi-young, formidable teenager from South Korea, who was awarded the “Most Promising Player” in 2019.
They already collapsed in last week’s tournament, with the more experienced Marin winning the match 21-18, 21-16.