The India men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty shocked top seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan in straight games to enter the semi-finals of the French Open badminton tournament here on Friday.
Seeded seventh in the Super 750 event, Rankireddy and Shetty won 21-12, 21-16 in a quarter-final match that lasted 49 minutes. They will face the Korean pair of Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho in the semis.
Rankireddy and Shetty are the only Indians left in the tournament.
In men’s singles, HS Prannoy and Sameer Verma suffered contrasting losses to bow out on Thursday.
Prannoy, a Thomas Cup winner, went down fighting to China’s Lu Guang Zu 19- 21, 22-20, 19-21 while Sameer lost 18-21, 11-21 to Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the pre-quarter finals.
Kidambi Srikanth also crashed out of the tournament after losing to Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 21-19, 12-21, 19-21 in a match that lasted one hour and 15 minutes.
Srikanth won the first game 21-19 but was outclassed in the next two games.