SINGAPORE: Star Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stunned top seeds and world No. 1 Kim Won Ho and Seo Seung Jae of Korea in straight games to storm into the final of the Singapore Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Saturday.
The fourth seeded Indian pair prevailed over the reigning world champion duo of Ho and Jae 21-19, 21-18 in a semifinal contest that lasted 52 minutes.
The Indians will play against the winner of the other semifinal, between the third seeded Indonesian pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and fifth seeds Liang Wei Kang and Chang Wang from China in Sunday's summit clash.
But it was curtains for Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto as they lost 16-21, 21-17, 13-21 against the Japanese pair of Yuichi Shimogami and Sayaka Hobara in the mixed doubles semifinals.
The men's doubles semifinal between the Indian and the Korean pairs was a closely contested affair with Ho and Jae holding a narrow 13-11 lead at the break in the opening game.
But Satwik and Chirag stayed within touching distance and made a remarkable comeback by earning crucial points to pocket the opening game.
It was not smooth sailing for Satwik and Chirag in the second game as well, trailing 11-14 in the midway stage. But the Indians maintained their composure to come from behind and upset the Korean pair.
Chirag said he and Satwik backed each other when the chips were down.
"Even when we were down we kept backing each other and stick around and eventually we knew they will crack at some point and if we stick to our plans we knew it will work. We had that belief and it went well for us," Chirag said.
Satwik added: "Just keep pushing on to the net, I felt they were not in a comfortable position to defend. It's always a slow start for us, we need to adjust a little bit."
Chirag said the pair is going in the right direction.
"I think we are in the right direction and improvement is an ongoing process, you will never be perfect, there is always scope for improvement and we keep pushing ourselves and that we think we are on the right track."
It was the maiden win of the star Indian pair over the world. No.1 Korean duo, having come close on several occasions.
"We only played them twice actually, once last year in India Open and Malaysia Open semis and China finals, it went close but we realised if we have to beat them we have to be steady because we knew they have the strongest defence in the circuit," Chirag said.