Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stunned top seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan in straight games to enter the semifinals of the French Open badminton tournament in Paris on Friday.
Seeded seventh in the Super 750 event, Rankireddy and Shetty won 21-12, 21-16 in a quarterfinal match that lasted 49 minutes.
The Indian duo will face the Korean pair of Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho in the semifinals.
Rankireddy and Shetty are the only Indians left in the fray in the tournament. Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy and Sameer Verma lost in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals on Thursday.
Sankar Muthusamy reaches BWF World Junior Championships semifinal
Rising Indian shuttler Sankar Muthusamy on Friday assured himself of a medal in the BWF World Junior Championships as he reached the men's U-19 singles semifinals after defeating Hu Zhe An of China, in Santander, Spain.
Seeded fourth in the tournament, Muthusamy won 21-18, 8-21, 21-16 in a quarterfinal match that lasted one hour and 31 minutes.
He became only the ninth Indian to win a medal at the World Junior Championships, the last being Lakshya Sen in 2018 -- a bronze.
Muthusamy faces Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul of Thailand in the semifinal.
On Thursday, Muthusamy had beaten Nachakorn Pusri, also of Thailand, 21-10, 21-12 in the men's singles pre-quarterfinals while fifth seeded Unnati Hooda had lost to Hina Akechi of Japan 17-21, 21-12, 18-21 in the women's singles.
