Indian men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty fought hard to advance to the final, but it was curtains for H S Prannoy in the men's singles semifinals of the Indonesia Open World Tour Super 1000 event here on Saturday.
The Commonwealth Games gold medalist duo of Satwik and Chirag, seeded seventh, overcame a game deficit to beat unseeded Min Hyuk Kang and Seung Jae Seo of Korea 17-21, 21-19, 21-18 to seal their maiden Super 1000 final berth.
The win also extended their overall head-to-head record over Kang and Seo to 3-2.
However, Prannoy failed to rise to the occasion against top seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, going down 15-21, 15-21.
Prannoy played the catch up game from the onset. He showed sparks in between riding on his cross court smashes but Axelsen's drop shots and court coverage was good enough to help him take the lead.
The script unfolded in the same manner in the next game as Axelsen continued to maintain his upper hand and pocket the game and match in identical manner.
It was Prannoy's sixth loss to the Dane in the international circuit as against two wins.
The doubles semifinals started on an even kneel before the Korean pair surged ahead to 6-3.
Once they conceded the lead, Satwik and Chirag were forced to play catch-up in the rest of the first game.
The Indians used their aggressive play to reduce the margin to 15-19 and then 17-20 before Kang and Seo kept their composure to pocket the first game, courtesy an unforced error.
Trailing, the reigning Commonwealth Games champions, looked more purposeful after the change of ends and took an early 6-3 lead before racing to 11-4 with a flurry of fast paced shots and body smashes in the second game.
Satwik and Chirag were also helped by some bad line calls and unforced errors from the Koreans.
But Kang and Seo didn't give up and clawed their way back in the game to reduce the gap to 18-15.
But the Indians held their nerve and played sensibly to pocket the second game and level the scores.
The decider went neck and neck till the first five points before Satwik and Chirag pocketed seven straight points to race to 12-5 lead.
The Koreans tried hard to bounce back and at one time levelled the scores at 16-16 but Satwik and Chirag put their foot on the accelerator and relied on their aggressive play to keep their nose ahead and finally closed out the game and the match.
