India's mixed doubles team of Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy have made it to the semi-finals of the ongoing Toyota Thailand Open. The duo knocked out Rio Olympics silver medalists Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh of Malaysia, during the quarterfinals in Bangkok on Friday.
The fifth seeds Malaysian team lost in a hard-fought three-game contest that lasted one hour and 15 minutes. The World No 22 Indian duo beat the opponents 18-21 24-22 22-20 in a thrilling match.
Rankireddy and Ponnappa will face off the winners of the last quarterfinal match between top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand and Korean duo of Sung Hyun Ko and Hye Won Eom. Previously, they played past Germany's Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich in their second-round contest.
Ponnappa had ended the partnership with her women’s doubles pair Jwala Gutta in 2016. They had started their journey in 2009, and became the first Indian pair to win a world championship bronze (2011), Commonwealth Games gold (2010) and silver (2014). Together they were applauded for their performance in representing India in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.
Meanwhile, this year, sixth seed Indian PV Sindhu will take on Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, seeded fourth, in the women’s singles quarterfinals. She earlier crashed out of the YONEX Thailand Open Super 1000 event after returning to competitive badminton after a long gap. She had suffered a shocking defeat in the first round. London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, on the other hand, exited Thailand Open BWF Super-1000 tournament in Bangkok earlier on Tuesday.
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