Indonesia Open: India's Challenge Ends With Satwik-Chirag's QF Loss

Man Wei Chong: The former champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out of the Indonesia Open, a BWF Super 1000 badminton tournament, with a straight game loss in the men's doubles quarterfinal to Malaysian seventh seeds Man Wei Chong and Kai Wun Tee here on Friday.

Satwik-Chirag, who had reached the semifinals of the Singapore Open Super 750 last week, suffered a 19-21, 16-21 loss at the hands of World No. 7 Chong and Tee at the Istora Senayan. This was the Malaysian's first win against Satwik-Chirag in five meetings.

The World No. 22 pair were the last Indian contention at the Super 1000 tournament in Jakarta after two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand crashed out in the second round.

On Thursday, Satwik-Chirag came from behind to advance to the quarterfinals of the Super 1000 tournament. The 2023 champions Satwik-Chirag had registered a hard-fought 16-21, 21-18, 22-20 win over world number 16 Danish pair of Rasmus Kjaer and Frederik Sogaard in a 68-minute second-round clash.

Sindhu’s campaign came to an end after a narrow 22-20, 10-21, 18-21 loss to Thailand’s world No. 8 Pornpawee Chochuwong in a gruelling 78-minute match on Thursday. She staged a strong comeback to take the opening game after being 10-16 down.

But, Chochuwong bounced back with a dominant second game and despite Sindhu leading 15-11 in the decider, the Thai shuttler’s consistency and Sindhu’s untimely unforced errors saw the Indian falter at the finish line.

Earlier, Lakshya Sen, returning from a back injury, fell short despite a spirited effort against world No. 2 Shi Yu Qi in the opening round. The 2021 World Championships bronze medallist stretched Shi to three games, eventually losing 11-21, 22-20, 15-21 in a match that lasted 65 minutes.

But, Chochuwong bounced back with a dominant second game and despite Sindhu leading 15-11 in the decider, the Thai shuttler’s consistency and Sindhu’s untimely unforced errors saw the Indian falter at the finish line.

Article Source: IANS