Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stayed on course for their second consecutive India Open 2025 final with a straight games win over Korea’s Yong Jin and Kang Min Hyuk in the men’s doubles quarterfinals. However, PV Sindhu and Kiran George were knocked out of the India Open 2025 at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall here on Friday (Jan 17).
Satwik-Chirag win
Satwik and Chirag were at their dominant best in their quarter-final encounter against South Korea’s Yong Jin and Kang Min Hyuk, winning 21-10, 21-17. However, it was a heartbreak for the other Indians in the fray with Sindhu going down 21-9, 19-21, 21-17 against fourth seed Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in women’s singles while Weng Hong Yang of China defeated Kiran 21-13, 21-19 in the men’s singles quarterfinals.
The loss against Tunjung notwithstanding, there were a lot of positives to take home for Sindhu. The 29-year-old, who had been struggling with injuries since the Paris Olympics, struggled with her movement in the opening game but took the fight to her opponent once she found her range.
Trailing 3-9 in the second game, Sindhu began pushing Tunjung to the back of the court thereby nullifying the sharpness of Indonesia’s quick slice drops and keeping the shuttle long enough in play to force an error from her opponent.
She caught up with Tunjung at 9-9 and though both the players stayed neck-and-neck thereafter, Sindhu managed to take the match into a decider by forcing the fourth seed into taking more risks to try and win points.
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The former champion continued with the same strategy in the decider and it looked like she could script an upset with both players locked at 17-17. Some brilliant stroke play from Tunjung and a wrong judgment from Sindhu ended up deciding the fate of the match which lasted an hour and two minutes.
In the men’s singles quarterfinals, Kiran fought hard against Weng and even saved a match point in the second game but an error on a forehand drive ended his hopes of advancing any further in the competition.