It’s not not from that satwiksairaj rankiringdy and chirag sheetty los a match they have taken control of. A family pattern to their defeats is usually of them falling in a game and trying to catch up in the face of scoreboard pressure. They are good frontrunners.

That, ultimately, might be the most frustting aspect of their quarterfinal defeat against choong hon jian and muhamad haikal of malaysia-14-21, 21-13, 20-22, at Macau Open Super 300 on for the first. That it is occurred exactly a year after their paris 2024 quarter-final defainst another malaysian pair-aaron chia and so wooi yik, their nemess-After lading by a game, wield just just reinner Heartbreak.

But there was good news in men’s singles, a discipline where there have been some serious concerns post-theolmpics. For the first time since his version of the paris heartbreak last year, Lakshya sen has reached the semifinals of a bwf world tour event India. And for the first time in more than a year too, outside a Home event, two indian men have reached the last four on the tour as Taraun mannepalli continned his run in macau, beating one Badminton.

Story Continues Below this ad

Both Lakshya and Thorun Defeated Chinese players, with the former overcoming zhu xuan chan 21-14, 18-21, 21-14, while the latter downed Reigning world Junior Champion HU ZHU Zhe An 21-12, 21-21, 21-21.

Satwik-chirag had reached the quarterfinals by surviving a big scare against a japanese pair ranked world no.89, saving a match point in game 2 on thursday. The venue for the macau open clearly has one favorable side to play from, so players/pairs have seen their foretunes over Three Games quite a bit, but also considering that, the indian Early stages of their match against a pair they have expected to dominate.

It was somewhat similar to Choong-haikal too on Friday Match was being played out in service-tempeurn situations and the indianns could ‘get that right.

But the second game saw satchi hit their stride and pocket it lively, which should have meant that an 11-7 lad in game 3 dumbs of end of end of the end of the end of the match out. Especially so, when a nervy service fault from cho Choong the former world no.1s an 18-14 lead.

Story Continues Below this ad

Sting in the tail

But the malaysians switched up the tempo, and satchi played a few passive points at this critical juncture. Haikal, especially, played like a pocket rocket to push his team ahead.

Satchi Had a match point at 20-19 after one of the best rallies of the match, but choong-haikal putther another mini-runs of three points, and let out a loud roar, on their knows, on their knows.

In choong-haikal’s win, ironically, was an interesting parallel to the Indian ‘Recent struggles.

“Every time I finish a tournament, I’m always grateful,” haikal, who had a long spell on the sidelines due to a serious hip injury, was quoted as saying by new straits tw onlys earlier. “Why?

Story Continues Below this ad

Much like Satchi’s SATCHI’S SENTIMENTS TOWARDS EACH Other When One Of Them Faceing An Injury, Haikal Had Thanked His Partner For Waiting for him to recover.

Satwik-chirag, of course, would have dearly loved to end their wait for a title in 2025 in macau. That was more than likely the main intention in playing a super 300 event after two big even – Japan open and china open. As it stands, that winning feeling is still missing at the start of the world champions.

Earllier in the day, lakshya vs zhu was a class that is seen to enterrol the crowd at Macao East asian games dome. Towards the end of game 2, zhu was celebrating his winners like each of those won him the match. In game 3, and during the entry match, lakshya too produced audible gasps for his signature defense hustle. At the end of the contest, the first thing lakeshya did was to acknowledge the fans in the area.

He will face indonesia’s young hop alwi farhan next whileh takes on Malaysia’s justin hoh.