It was a mixed day for India at the French Open Super 750 as top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty reached their third straight final of the BWF Tour in 2024 while Lakshya Sen's encouraging run came to an end in the semifinals.
Satwik-Chirag beat reigning world champions Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae 21-13, 21-16 in just 40 minutes, avenging their India Open final loss at home. The world No 1 pair didn't let the Koreans' defence get going in the fast conditions and set the pace of play on their racquets for a comprehensive win.
Their final opponents are yet to be decided but the Indians will be raring to win their first title of 2024 after two in very rare runner up finishes at the Malaysia Masters and Indian Open in January.
Lakshya, however, couldn't sustain his momentum going down to reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn 20-23, 21-13, 21-11. Despite the result, this Paris outing has plenty of positives to take back, chief among them being a much-needed return to form with some big wins under his belt.
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Unseeded Lakshya Sen faces reigning eighth seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn (approximately 10.30 PM) and the top-seeded men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty take on third seeds Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae right after. There is a lot of history behind both these encounters.
Satwik and Chirag are the top seeds and almost always favourites in most tournaments given their recent form. But they lost back-to-back finals to start the 2024 season and the loss to Seo-Kang in the finals of India Open at home, a week after beating them soundly in Malaysia, was particularly hard. Then, Satwik had spoken about how the loss at home will actually help them add fuel to their fire, and their chance of revenge has come soon enough.
The Indians lead their head-to-head 4-2 but the final loss in Delhi came after a tactical masterclass in slower conditions from the South Koreans. Satwik and Chirag would have done their homework this time around and will be raring to prove their point, something that always brings the best out of the world No 1 pair.
For Lakshya, the semifinal is more of a surprise after he had endured a terrible run on the tour since last August. But the 21-year-old has overturned that poor run of form in stunning fashion - beating Kanta Tsuneyama, Li Shi Feng and Loh Kean Yew, all from a game down. In Paris, he has found a new zing showing his full range of speed, court coverage and defensive nous despite being pushed into corners.
In the semis, he faces a familiar opponent from junior days. The Thai player leads the Indian 6-4 in H2H but they are evenly matched in most of their matches. The momentum Lakshya has shown in his two big wins could just carry him through against Vitidsarn, who has not had the best of times since winning the World Championship in August either.
On Friday, Laksya and Sat-Chi reached the semifinal Saturday in contrasting manner as Lakshya battled to former world champion Loh Kean Yew 19-21 21-15 21-13 in a 78-minute clash while Satwik and Chirag lived up to their billing with a strong 21-19 21-13 victory over Thailand's world No. 32 Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kedren.
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