File photo of Indian shuttlers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.© AFP
Commonwealth Games men’s doubles champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered an opening-round defeat in the China Open Super 1000 tournament, going down in three games to Indonesia’s Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Maulana Bagas on Wednesday. The Indian pair, ranked two, lost to the world number 13 duo 17-21, 21-11, 17-21 in one hour eight minutes. The Indian mixed doubles pair of Sikki Reddy and Rohan Kapoor also crashed out of the tournament, going down to the Malaysian duo of Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei 15-21, 16-21 in the first round.
With the defeats, the Indian challenge came to an end as no shuttler from the country could advance to the second round of the tournament.
The loss in the opening round just ahead of the Asian Games would be a huge disappointment for Satwik and Chirag after their success in the Swiss Open Super 300, Korea Open and the Indonesia Open Super 1000 earlier this year.
This is the second time the Indonesians have beaten the Satwik-Chirag pair this year. They had defeated the Indian duo in the pre-quarterfinals of the Thailand Open in June.
On Tuesday, World Championship bronze medallist HS Prannoy too had made a shock opening-round exit after going down in three games to Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong.
Reigning Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen had also crashed out of the tournament in the first round after losing to Anders Antonsen of Denmark in three games.
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