Friday was a historic day for India in the Badminton Asia Championships 2023 being played in Dubai. The country’s top men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Ranki Reddy and Chirag Shetty won the quarterfinals. With this, both of them have assured a medal for the country. This will be India’s first medal in men’s doubles after 52 years in this tournament. In such a situation, this is a historic moment for the country.
Satwik and Chirag took on the experienced Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-11, 21-12 in the quarterfinals of the Badminton Asia Championships 2023. In this match, the Indian pair took off from 8-8 in the first and 6-6 in the second. They were always in the ascendance in a rather unexpected one-sided encounter. Working to a plan by Mathias Boe, the sixth seeds offered little respite to the Indonesians, despite some delectable returns from the Daddies.
The Indonesians, seeded 3rd attempted to slow down the pace and prolong the rallies without much success. The Indians kept chipping away with the winners in quick exchanges to win India a men’s doubles medal after 52 years at the BAC. The Indians next take on Olympic champions, Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin of Taiwan in the Badminton Asia Championships 2023 semifinals.
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However, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu squandered a game lead to go down against second seed An Se Young of Korea in the women’s singles quarterfinals. While the other Indian hope, eighth seed H.S. Prannoy, too bowed out in the men’s singles quarterfinals after conceding his match midway against Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan. Prannoy was trailing 11-21, 9-13 when he retired due to an injury.
Earlier in the day, qualifiers Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy battled hard before losing a tough three-game mixed doubles contest. They go down against Dejan Ferdinansyah and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja of Indonesia. The Indian pair fought for one hour and five minutes. But they lost the Badminton Asia Championships 2023 quarterfinal by 18-21, 21-19, 15-21 margins.
