Abhishek Mishra
The Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stormed into the semi-final of the China Masters 2025 (S750). The Indian duo smashed the local favourites Ren Xiang Wu and Xie Hanon in straight games, winning the match 21-14, 21-14 in just 37 minutes. This marked the seventh semi-final for the Indian pair this season.
PV Sindhu lost to world number one, South Korea’s An Se Young in straight games, going down 14-21, 13-21 which marked her exit from the tournament. She stunned world number six Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in the Round of 16 but fell short today.
The Shenzhen Arena saw the aggressive mode of Satwik and Chirag. They got off to a flying start, racing to an 8-0 lead and were ahead 11-5 at the interval. After the break, the Indians pressed on the accelerator once again with their sharp placements and heavy smashes, winning the first game 21-14.
The second game saw both pairs exchange points in the beginning but after 7-7, Satwik-Chirag won three consecutive points and led 11-9 at the interval. The game continued in the same fashion. After 15-13, they scored five consecutive points to be almost there. The Chinese saved one match point, but that was not enough as the Indians sealed their spot in the last four
After the match, talking to BWF media, they reflected on their victory. “We felt pretty comfortable over there and we just wanted to play our game and see what they came up with. We’re really happy that we are giving back-to-back performances and playing freely without any niggles. We did have some small issues but nothing serious. Overall, I’m very happy with today’s performance,” Satwik said.
Both players looked stable throughout the tournament. Talking about the pressure in the semi-finals, as they have fallen short multiple times at this stage, Chirag said: “I think once we start playing more finals consistently… And finally a final last week, so yeah, we can call it stability. There have been a lot of semi-finals, but finally a final last week. Hopefully, we can do even better this week. Feeling good, but definitely not satisfied yet.”
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