India's star duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy has stormed into the quarterfinals of the ongoing Hong Kong Open. They are keeping India's hopes of a title win alive after another star shuttler, PV Sindhu, was knocked out in the first round itself. The Satwik-Chirag duo also survived a scare in the round of 16, as they lost the first set 16-21 to Thailand's Peeratchai Sukphun and Pakkapon Teeraratsakul. But made a brilliant comeback to pocket the last two sets and make it to the last eight.
They won the final two sets 21-15, 21-15 to win the clash. They were not at their best in the opening game and faced some issues in terms of coordination. But the shuttlers made a good comeback as they found their rhythm and dominated the proceedings to eventually clinch the match.
In the quarterfinal, they will face the Malaysian duo of Yap Roy King and Junaidi Arif on September 12 (Friday), who are coming into this game after beating their own countrymen in the round of 16. They got the better of the Muhammad Haikal-Choong Hon Jian duo to make it to the last eight.
Kiran George, Ayush Shetty, Sen and Prannoy in action today
Meanwhile, in Men's Singles, several Indian players are in action today in the round of 16. Interestingly, HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen will lock horns against each other, like they did at the Paris Olympics last year. Sen has won five out of eight matches between them and will be hoping to continue his domination.
The focus will also be on the emerging Indian shuttler Ayush Shetty, who will face Kodai Naraoka of Japan. Naraoka defeated the Olympic gold medallist Viktor Axelsen in straight sets 21-15, 21-7 in the previous round and will be high on confidence in this encounter. Another singles shuttler Kiran George will also be in action today against Taiwan's Chou Tien-chen in the round of 16.
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