Satwik-Chirag enter quarters; Kashyap out

Fuzhou (China), November 7 

India’s men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty today stunned sixth seeds Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe to enter the quarterfinals of the China Open here. Rankireddy and Shetty played their hearts out to get the better of their Japanese opponents 21-18 21-23 21-11 in a pulsating second-round contest that lasted an hour and six minutes.

Rankireddy and Shetty will face Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen of China in the quarterfinals tomorrow. Rankireddy and Shetty are the lone Indians left in the tournament.

Parupalli Kashyap and B Sai Praneeth were both ousted in the second round of the men’s singles event.

World No. 11 Praneeth fought hard for one hour and 24 minutes against fourth seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark before going down 20-22 22-20 21-16.

Kashyap, ranked 25 in the world, ran out of steam after a decent start against seventh seed Victor Axelsen and went down 13-21 19-21 in a match that lasted 43 minutes.  

It was also the end of the road for the mixed doubles pair of Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa. The unseeded duo lost 21-23 16-21 to fifth seeds Seo Seung Jae and Chae Yujung of South Korea. — PTI