Satwik-Chirag combo makes shock exit
Defending men’s doubles champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a shock opening-round exit but the mixed pair of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila advanced to the quarterfinals with back-to-back wins in the Asian Games badminton competition here on Friday.
The former world No.1 and two-time world championship bronze medallists, Satwik and Chirag, won the opening game but were eventually stunned by Thailand’s Pakkapon Teeraratsakul and Peeratchai Sukphun 12-21, 21-19, 21-14 in a one-hour-eight-minute contest.
The unfancied Thai pair fought back to take the second game 21-19 before completing the upset with a 21-14 win in the decider.
Tanisha and Dhruv, on the other hand, began their campaign with a comfortable 21-8, 21-7 win over Maldives’ Nibal Ahmed and Aminath Nabeeha Abdul Razzaq in 21 minutes.
They followed it up with a one-hour-long, hard-fought 22-20, 24-22 victory over Malaysia’s Shevon Jemie Lai and Soon Huat Goh to enter the quarterfinals.
They will face China’s Yan Zhe Feng and Dongping Huang in the last eight.
Earlier, Unnati Hooda also advanced to the second round after defeating North Korea’s Mi Song Yu 21-9, 21-10 in 30 minutes.
India’s shuttlers had endured mixed results in the team events.
The women’s team, led by PV Sindhu, failed to win a medal, while the men’s team settled for bronze after being unable to better the silver they won at the previous edition.
Later in the day, Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun are also in action against Indonesia’s world No. 2 pair Fajar Alfian and Shohibul Fikri in men’s doubles.
