The Indian men’s doubles duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will be in action in the quarterfinals of the ongoing Malaysian Open badminton tournament on Friday.
‘Sat-Chi’ reached the final eight stage of the tournament by beating local stars Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub and Tan Wee Kiong 21-15, 21-15 comprehensively at Kuala Lumpur’s Axiata Arena. The opponents for the popular Indian duo in the quarterfinals are Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia, as per Olympics.com.
However, this was India’s only win on a rather disappointing Thursday. World number 26 HS Prannoy’s campaign was brought to a sad end by China’s seventh-seeded shuttler She Feng Li. Despite winning the second game and taking the final game to a tiebreaker, Prannoy lost the hard-fought match 8-21, 21-15, 21-23 in one hour and 22 minutes.
Malvika Bansod’s women’s singles campaign came to an end in the round of 16 against third-seeded Han Yue of China. Though Malvika started by putting pressure on her Chinese opponent with a 6-2 lead, she could not sustain the momentum and let Han secure an 18-21, 11-21 win.
Other Indian doubles pairings also faced disappointing exits from the tournament, with the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto and the women’s doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand facing losses in the round of 16.
Kapila and Crasto were defeated by China’s seventh-seeded pair of Zhang Chi and Cheng Xing 13-21, 20-22 in straight games, and Treesa and Gayatri lost to China’s Jia Yifan and Zhang Shuxian 21-15, 18-21, 19-21 in a hard-fought match despite starting with a first-game win.
The tournament will conclude on Sunday, January 12.
