Satwik-Chirag enter last 16, Lakshya Sen ousted

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty entered the men's doubles pre-quarterfinals with a straight-game win but India's challenge in the men's singles competition ended with Lakshya Sen's first-round ouster from the China Masters badminton tournament here on Wednesday.

Satwik and Chirag, who finished runners-up in last week's Hong Kong Open, eked out a 24-22 21-13 victory over Malaysia's Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap in 42 minutes, keeping their all-win head-to-head record against them intact.

However, Lakshya, who also finished second last week, lost 11-21 10-21 to Toma Junior Popov in a 30-minute contest to bring the curtains down on India's men's singles challenge after Ayush Shetty's defeat in his opening match.

The mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also made their exit after going down to second-seeded local favourites Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping 19-21 13-21.

Satwik and Chirag were tested a bit in the opening game which went neck and neck till the end but the Indian duo edged past eventually to seal it in 21 minutes.

They took an early lead in the second game but Arif and Yap clawed back to make 5-5. However, the Indians were in no mood to let them fight back and established an 11-6 advantage which the Malaysians could not surpass.

In the women's singles event, P V Sindhu had won her opening match on Monday to make the pre-quarterfinals. She will be up against sixth-seeded Thai Pornpawee Chochuwong in her next outing.