The Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponappa on Friday entered the mixed doubles semi-finals of the Toyota Thailand Open after securing a hard-fought win over fifth seeds Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh of Malaysia.
The unseeded Indian pair registered a 18-21, 24-22, 22-20 win over their world number six opponents in a nail-biting quarter-final clash which lasted for an hour and 15 minutes.
Rankireddy and Ponappa will now face the winners of the other quarterfinal match between top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand and Korean duo of Sung Hyun Ko and Hye Won Eom for a place in the finals.
On Thursday, Rankireddy and Ponappa, world no. 22, had defeated Germany’s Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich 22-20, 14-21, 21-16 to enter the quarter-finals. Before that, they had defeated Indonesia’s Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja 21-11, 27-29, 21-16 to advance to the second round.
Meanwhile, in the women’s singles event, world champion PV Sindhu is scheduled to take on Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon in the quarter-finals, while Sameer Verma will play third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the men’s singles last-eight contest later in the day.
In men’s doubles, Rankireddy will then team up with Chirag Shetty to face Malaysia’s Yew Sin Ong and Ee Yi Teo in the quarter-finals.
