India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty shocked top seed Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto to sail into the men’s doubles semi-finals before HS Prannoy entered the last-four stage of men’s singles competition at the Indonesia Open here on Friday.
However, World Championship silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth bowed out of the men’s singles competition after going down fighting to China’s Li Shi Feng in the quarter finals.
Srikanth lost 14-21, 21-14, 12-21 in one hour and nine minutes against world No. 10 Feng.
The win enabled Feng to restore parity on head-to-head record against Srikanth, which stands at 1-1 now.
The seventh-seeded duo of Satwik and Chirag then displayed a flawless game to outwit Indonesia’s Alfian and Adrianto 21-13, 21-13 in 41 minutes.
Satwik and Chirag will play the winner of the quarter final between Koreans Min Hyuk Kang and Seung Jae Seo and Indonesia’s Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin.
Prannoy’s show
In the final Indian match of the day, seventh seed Prannoy prevailed over Kodai Naraoka of Japan, seeded third, 21-18, 21-6 to book his semi-final berth.
In the battle between Srikanth and Feng, the Chinese came out on top in the first game despite taking more time to get off the blocks.
World No. 22 Srikanth opened up an early 2-0 lead before Feng bounced back with five straight points, with the Indian committing too many unforced errors.
