India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty sailed through to the second round as HS Prannoy crashed out of Malaysia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament on Wednesday.
The pair of Satwik-Chirag defeated Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia 21-18, 21-19, whereas Prannoy lost to Denmark’s Anders Antonsen 14-21, 11-21 in the first round.
Lakshya Sen also could not make his breakthrough, as the Indian succumbed to China’s Weng Hong Yang, in two straight sets of 21-15, 21-16. This marks the sixth consecutive first-round exit for Sen.
The second-seeded pair of Satwik and Chirag, which reached the semifinals in 2023, will look to continue the good run and go deep in the draw after the stiff 44-minute test from the world No. 9 duo, which had beaten the Indians twice last year — at the Thailand Open and China Open.
Satwik and Chirag have looked in ominous form, winning the Asian Games gold in Hangzhou, a Super 1000 crown in Indonesia, the Korea Open Super 500 and the Swiss Open super 300 last year before grabbing a a career-best ranking of World No.1, albeit for a brief time.
The duo asserted early dominance in the first game with powerful smashes to take a four-point lead at 8-4 and never lost the advantage. However, the second game was more challenging with the Indians trailing for most part of the match before levelling at 19-all and taking the last two points.
Prannoy, a frontrunner in the Olympic race, had a sensational last season with maiden bronze medals at the World Championships and the Asian Games and a title-run at the Malaysia Masters super 500.
But, in the season-opening match here the Indian looked rusty and couldn’t match up with his opponent’s speed.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kidambi Srikanth came from behind to beat world number 5 Jonatan Christie 12-21 21-18 21-16. The women’s doubles pair of Tanisha Castro and Ashwini Ponnappa advanced to the second round after beating the American pair of Francesca Corbette and Allison Lee 21-13 21-16 in the opening round. The Indian pair takes on the seventh seeded Japanese duo of Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara in the next round. Matsumoto and Nagahara had beaten the Indian pair of Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda 21-12 21-11 in the first round..
In women’s singles, Aakarshi Kashyap lost to Zhang Yi Man of China 15-21 15-21 in the opening round. The men’s doubles pair of M R Arjun and Dhruva Kapila also lost their opening round match 16-21 19-21 to the Chinese Taipei pair of Fang-Chih Lee and Fang-Jen Lee.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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