Indian men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty exited in the first round of the 2024 Singapore Badminton Open Super 750 on Tuesday.
It was also an early exit for Aakarshi Kashyap, Priyanshu Rajawat, the women’s doubles pair of Rutaparna Panda-Swetaparna Panda and the mixed doubles pair of Ashith Surya-Amrutha Pramuthesh.
The Indians, who were the top seeds and were fresh off their title win at the Thailand Open Super 500 two weeks ago, lost 20-22, 18-21 to Denmark’s Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard.
The first game saw both pairs match each other evenly and exchanged serves throughout the game. Rankireddy and Shetty were trailing 6-12 at one point, but fought back to level things at 18-all. They then had the opportunity to take a 1-0 lead in the match at 20-18, but Lundgaard and Vestergaard won four consecutive points to win the opening game 22-20.
The second game was even closer with neither pair allowing the other to run away with a lead. Rankireddy and Shetty equalised at 10-all before taking the lead at 12-10 through a three-point winning streak, but failed to consolidate the lead. Similar to the first game, the scoreline was level at 17-all before the Danish pair won three straight points to serve for match point, which they closed out on the Indians’ serve.
Kashyap, who was up against Thailand’s Pornpicha Choeikeewong, went down 19-21, 20-22 in straight games.
The Indian led 19-14 in the second game against the world No 42, but ended up conceding points in a cluster as Choeikeewong wrapped up the win in 46 minutes.
Later in the day, men’s singles shuttler Rajawat lost out to Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu 21-23, 19-21 in a hard fought contest.
Rajawat, ranked 33rd in the world, failed to convert four game points in the first game as he led 20-17 and later 21-20, before the world No 16 took his first opportunity to seal the deal. The Indian also had a slender 19-17 advantage in the second game, but Lee went on a run of four points to close of the match in 47 minutes.
Meanwhile, the women’s doubles pair of the Panda sisters put up a fight against world No 35 pair of Chang Ching Hui and Yang Ching Tun but went down 12-21, 21-12, 13-21 in a contest which lasted 57 minutes.
Surya and Pramuthesh lost their mixed doubles encounter 8-21, 17-21 to Hong Kong’s Lee Chun Hei Reginald and Ng Tsz Yau in a match that lasted under 30 minutes.
The Indian challenge continues in Singapore on Wednesday with the likes of Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy in men’s singles along with PV Sindhu in women’s singles leading the charge. Accompanying them are the Olympic-bound women’s doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto-Ashwini Ponnappa alongside Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand, among others.
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