The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty put up an impressive performance even as India had a mixed day at the Asia Championships in Manila on Tuesday.
Satwik and Chirag, seeded third, defeated Thailand’s Apiluk Gaterahong and Natchanon Tulamok 21-13, 21-9 in 27 minutes to reach the men’s doubles round of 16.
Satwik and Chirag will face a tough test in the next round where they take on Akira Koga and Taichi Saito from Japan. The world No 23 pair defeated All England champions Bagas Maulana and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri in a three-game thriller.
In the mixed doubles, India’s Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto moved into the round of 16 with a 21-15, 21-17 victory against Hong Kong’s Cheuk Him Law and Nga Ting Yeung. The pair will now face seventh seeds Pei Jing Lai and Kian Meng Tan of Malaysia.
These were the only two victories for India on Tuesday, though, with defeats in the other three matches featuring shuttlers from the country.
In the men’s doubles, Arjun MR and Dhruv Kapila lost 16-21, 22-24 in a hard-fought match against fourth seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rain Ardianto of Indonesia.
Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala also lost their men’s doubles opener, going down 10-21, 21-19, 16-21 in 53 minutes against Wonho Kim and Minhyuk Kang of Korea.
Finally, in the mixed doubles first round, India’s Juhi Dewangan and Venkat Gaurav Prasad lost 9-21, 13-21 against Indonesian fourth seeds Melati Daeva Oktavianti and Praveen Jordan.
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