New Delhi: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached the quarterfinals of the Singapore Open badminton tournament with a hard-fought three-game win in the Round of 16 clash.
The top-ranked Indian duo rallied to beat the seventh-seeded Indonesian pair of Sabar Karyaman Gutama and Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani in Singapore on Thursday.
The Indian pair prevailed after registering a gruelling 19-21, 21-1,6 21-19 in a contest that lasted one hour and 14 minutes.
Satwik/Chirag into the QF of the Singapore Open
Let’s go Sat/Chi they defeated WR 8 🇮🇩 19-21, 21-16, 21-19 in the Round of 16 pic.twitter.com/w3GjT3ujww
— 🇮🇳 Thomas Cup 22 🏆 (@Anmolkakkar27) May 29, 2025
Satwik-Chirag will now face the second-seeded Malaysian pair of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin in the next round.
Satwik-Chirag’s impressive start in comeback tournament
The Indian duo showed no sign of rustiness and withstood the pressure and intensity in their comeback tournament. The former world number one shuttlers, on Wednesday, made a winning return to the court after a gap of three months. Satwik and Chirag withdrew from the All England Open in March due to the latter’s back injury.
The star duo opened their campaign with a clinical performance, defeating Malaysia’s Choong Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal 21-16, 21-13 in just under 40 minutes in the Round of 32 contest.
However, India continued to struggle in the men’s singles competition as H S Prannoy crashed out after a 16-21, 14-21 loss to Frenchman Christo Popov in the pre-quarterfinal. On Wednesday, Lakshya Sen, India’s no. 1 singles player, was forced to retire hurt in the middle of his first-round clash against Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei.
Sindhu bows out
In the women’s singles category, double Olympic medallist Sindhu was knocked out after losing to world No. 5 Chen Yufei of China 9-21, 21-18, 16-21 in 65 minutes in a gruelling second-round match.
Sindhu, ranked 17 in the world, briefly displayed her brilliance, clinching the second game 21-18.
However, she had no answers for Chen’s sharpness and agility in the decider. Sindhu has now lost seven games in her 13 meetings with Chen.
Satwik-Chirag progressed to the quartefinals after registering a gruelling 19-21, 21-1,6 21-19 in a contest that lasted one hour and 14 minutes. Badminton Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
