Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponappa entered the mixed doubles semifinals with a stunning win over the World No. 6 pair of Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh of Malaysia in the Toyota Thailand Open Super 1000 tournament here on Friday.
However, in singles, World champion P.V. Sindhu dished out a below-par performance to lose her quarterfinal match, while Sameer Verma’s gallant fight ended in agony.
The unseeded pair of Satwik and Ashwini overcame Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh 18-21, 24-22, 22-20 after toiling for 75 minues in a thrilling quarterfinal.
The Indian pair, ranked World No. 22, will be up against top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand in the semifinals.
Later in the day, Satwik and Chirag Shetty saw off another Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi 21-18, 24-22 in 37 minutes.
Sindhu was all at sea against home favourite Ratchanok Inthanon, who rode on her precision and quality of strokes to outclass the Indian 21-13, 21-9 in just 38 minutes.
In men’s singles, Sameer’s giant-killing run also came to an end after he squandered a match point to go down 21-13, 19-21, 22-20 to World No. 3 Anders Antonsen of Denmark.
The results (quarterfinals):
Men: Anders Antonsen (Den) bt Sameer Verma 21-13, 19-21, 22-20. Doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty bt Ong Yew Sin & Teo Ee Yi (Mas) 21-18, 24-22.
Women: Ratchanok Inthanon (Tha) bt P.V. Sindhu 21-13, 21-9.
Mixed doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Ashwini Ponappa bt Peng Soon Chan & Liu Ying Goh (Mas) 18-21, 24-22, 22-20 .
