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Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have advanced to Singapore Open quarters after a thrilling victory over their Indonesian opponents.
Satwik-Chirag have moved into the quarters of the Singapore Open (Picture credit: Badminton Photo)
Star Indian men’s doubles shuttlers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty played out a nervy match against the seventh-seeded Indonesian duo of Sabar Gutama and Moh Reza Isfahani to move into the quarterfinals of the Singapore Open, winning 19-21, 21-16, 21-19 in over an hour.
Satwik and Chirag will on Friday face the second-seeded Malaysian pair of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin, against whom they have a 6-2 win-loss record.
It was a brilliant performance by Satwik and Chirag, who are making a comeback after fighting fitness problems for the past two months.
Unfortunately for double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, her journey came to an early end yet again as she lost to fifth-seeded star Chinese shuttler Chen Yu Fei, despite putting up a valiant fight, in over an hour, losing 9-21, 21-18, 16-21.
Sindhu, who has slipped to world No. 17, showed glimpses of her old form in the second game, where she led 19-12 before closing it out 21-18.
The decider saw Sindhu struggle to match Fei’s sharp smashes and court control, and the Chinese proved superior in those departments.
It was Sindhu’s seventh defeat to Chen in 13 meetings, highlighting her ongoing inconsistency this season.
Sindhu was coming off a hard-fought first-round exit at the Malaysia Masters last week, losing to Thuy Nguyen.
Despite a dominant 21-14, 21-9 victory over Canada’s Wen Yu Zhang in the opening round, Sindhu couldn’t build momentum on Thursday.
While Sindhu was good in patches, her slow reflexes and lack of control in rallies permitted Fei to dictate terms in the decider.
Notably, Sindhu had won the Singapore Open in 2022.
There was disappointment for India in the men’s singles competition as HS Prannoy bowed out after a 16-21, 14-21 defeat to Frenchman Christo Popov in the pre-quarters.
Earlier, the mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde lost to the second-seeded pair of Tang Man and Tse Suet of Hong Kong China in straight games, 10-21, 16-21.
Later, the eighth-seeded women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela will take on Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian of China. The latter pair has already beaten the Indian ladies once on tour.
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