Hangzhou: Star men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty dished out a masterclass to storm into the final and inch closer to India's first-ever badminton gold at the Asian Games here on Friday after H S Prannoy bowed out in the singles semifinals to sign off with a memorable bronze medal.
The world No.3 pair, which was part of the silver-medal winning Indian men's team, produced a sensational show to outclass Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, Tokyo bronze medallists and former world champions, 21-17, 21-12 in 46 minutes of dominance.
Satwik and Chirag became the first Indian pair to enter the Asian Games gold medal match.
Satwik and Chirag, the reigning Commonwealth Games gold medallists, will face Korea's Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho in the final on Saturday.
While the two sent down their booming smashes whenever there was an opportunity, Satwik and Chirag were also good with their angles and placement.
The two pairs fought tooth and nail from the first point to 10-10 before Satwik produced a smash to take a one-point lead at the break.
On resumption, the Indian pair showed better anticipation and quickly extended the lead to 16-10 before grabbing six game points.
A service error from the Indians and then a deceptive stroke from Soh helped Malaysia save three game points before Aaron sent his forehand into the net.
The Indians came out all guns blazing with the pair mixing defence and attack seamlessly to zoom to 11-3 at the interval.
The two showed great coordination, moving smoothly back and forth with Satwik displaying his superb defence and Chirag complementing him.
Satwik and Chirag kept dominating the rallies with their anticipation and interceptions and grabbed 10 match points after winning a net duel, and converted in the third attempt.
Earlier, an error-prone Prannoy went down in straight games to reigning All England champion China's Li Shi Feng.
The world No.7 Indian, who was playing with a back niggle, committed too many unforced errors to go down 16-21, 9-21 to the home favourite and world No. 8 Li in a 51-minute contest.
It was India's second medal in men's singles since Syed Modi claimed a bronze in the 1982 edition in New Delhi.
Prannoy was also part of the silver medal-winning Indian men's team. He missed the final against China due to back pain.
The 31-year-old from Thiruvananthapuram made a good start but lost the plot midway through the opening game, mainly due to the errors he committed while looking for precision in his return, going wide and long in the process.
Prannoy focussed on constructing his rallies, using his drops to good use to lead 3-1. He mixed his shots well, shying away from smashes and instead using tosses to pin his opponent to the baseline.
Li tried to step up the pace and drew parity 5-5. The Indian then used his smash to get a point and soon moved to 8-5. He produced a forehand deceptive return to go to 9-7.
However, looking for precision, Prannoy missed the lines on the flank a few times to allow the Chinese to recover. Li made it 10-10 before a deceptive drop gave Prannoy a one-point cushion.
He led 13-11 when things started turning, as Li made it 15-14 with Prannoy erring.
The Chinese also grew in confidence and used his attack to move to 17-14. A straight jump smash kept Prannoy going, but he soon fell behind to 15-19.
Li won a net duel to gain four game points and then a lucky net cord ended the opening game.
The second game too was a tight affair initially as the duo battled to 4-4 but Li used his attacking returns and started dominating the rallies to eke out a four-point advantage at 8-4 with a net kill. Li had a five-point lead at the interval.
With Prannoy finding it hard to curb his errors, points kept coming thick and fast for Li as he moved to 14-6. The Chinese looked more sharp and showed better anticipation to move to 19-9 in a jiffy.
An on-the-line return gave 11 match points to Li and he sealed it comfortably.
