Commonwealth Games gold medallist Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty played their hearts out to beat BWF World Tour Finals champions Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi in three games to enter the semifinals of the Malaysia Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Friday.
The Indian pair, seeded seventh here, toiled to get the better of the Chinese duo 17-21, 22-20, 21-9 in the men's doubles quarter-finals.
They will play another Chinese pair, Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, in the last-four round.
Earlier, India's HS Prannoy went down fighting to world No. 7 Japanese Kodai Naraoka in a gruelling three games in the men's singles quarter-finals.
The 30-year-old from Kerala ran out of steam in the 84-minute contest, losing 16-21, 21-19, 10-21 to the 21-year-old Naraoka, who seemed faster and fitter, despite playing two long matches in the earlier rounds.
This was Naraoka's third win over the Indian in as many meetings. He had defeated Prannoy in three games at the Singapore Open and World Tour Finals last year.