Commonwealth Games champion Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty chalked out a straight set victory over world No. 2 Chinese rivals to storm into the final of men’s doubles at the Korea Open badminton tournament at the Jinnam Stadium in Yeosu on Saturday.

Third seed Satwiksairaj and Chirag overpowered China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, 21-15, 24-22 to make their third final of the year. The Indians have already won the Swiss and Indonesia Open titles on the 2023 BWF World Tour.

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This was Indian duo’s first-ever win over the Chinese pair in three meetings. Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang had beaten the Indians at the All England Open and Malaysia Open earlier this year.

After a neck-to-neck start to the match, Satwiksairaj and Chirag gained the upper hand in the first game after winning five back-to-back points to make the score 14-8 from 9-8.The Indians sustained the momentum to close out the opening game with ease but came up against much sterner resistance in the second game.

Trailing 14-9 at one stage, Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang levelled the scores at 19-all but the Indians managed to raise their game at the vital juncture to finish off the contest in 40 minutes.

Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu, meanwhile, was ousted in the opening round after the Indian went down to Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po on Wednesday.

Results at the Korea Open count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The qualification window for badminton started on May 1 this year.