India’s top men’s doubles pair, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will play in the pre-quarterfinals of the ongoing China Masters badminton tournament on Friday, following their triumphant return to the sport on Thursday.
‘Sat-Chi’ played their first match since their Paris Olympics 2024 heartbreak. Satwiksairaj also recovered from an injury to make himself available for the tournament. The duo secured a 21-19, 21-15 win over 15th-ranked Rasmus Kjaer and Frederik Sogaard of Denmark, as per Olympics.com.
The reigning Asian Games champions from India will be facing Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in their quarterfinal match. Also, the two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu continued her Badminton World Federation (BWF) title drought, losing to world number 13, Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min, in a hard-fought contest by 21-16, 17-21, 23-21 scoreline. The match was an up-and-down affair, with scores once level at 15-all in the opening game before Yeo took the lead and won. Sindhu fought back in the next closely-contested game and won it. In the decider, the Indian controlled the game with a 13-9 lead before her opponent fought back. Sindhu did save four match points, but Yeo sealed the contest in one hour and nine minutes.
This is Sindhu’s first loss to Yeo in six matches as she continues her search for a BWF title, the last one being the Singapore Open title win last year. She last made it to the finals of a BWF event during the Malaysia Masters in May this year. Paris Olympics 2024 semifinalist Lakshya Sen also beat Denmark’s world number 30 Rasmus Gemke with a score of 21-16, 21-18. His next opponent will be Denmark’s Anders Antonsen in the quarterfinals.
However, the day also saw India’s mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy-N Sikki Reddy, women’s singles players Anupama Upadhyaya, and Malvika Bansod and women’s doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand. B Sumeeth Reddy-N Sikki Reddy handed a walkover to Chinese top seeds Feng Yan Zhe-Huang Dong Ping. Anupama Upadhyaya was defeated by Natsuki Nidaira of Japan 21-7, 21-14, while Malvika Bansod succumbed to a 21-9, 21-9 defeat to eighth-seeded Thai shuttler Supanida Katethong. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand went down 21-16, 21-11 to the second-seeded Chinese pair of Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning.
