Satwik-Chirag enter quarters

Star men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty cruised to the quarterfinals while HS Prannoy’s valiant fight ended in a narrow second round loss at the Malaysia Super 1000 badminton tournament here on Thursday. Satwik and Chirag defeated the Malaysian combine of N Azriyn and Tan WK 21-15 21-15 in 43 minutes in the Round of 16.

The seventh-seeded Indian pair will now take on local favourites Yew Sin Ong and Ee Yi Teo in the quarterfinals.

“It feels really good, happy to be back on tour. Good start to the year and looking forward to go as far in the tournament as possible,” Chirag said. “We started again with our new coach. We’ve worked with him before. He was the one who paired me and Satwik up when we were youngsters,” he added.

Prannoy, on the other hand, went down 8-21 21-15 21-23 to China’s Li Shi Feng. The 32-year-old Indian, returning to action after the Paris Olympics, lost in an hour and 22 minutes to seventh seed Li.

Malvika Bansod lost to world No. 5 and third seed Han Yue of China in the women’s Round of 16. The unseeded Indian lost 18-21 11-21. The women’s doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand suffered a 21-15 19-21 19-21 defeat to China’s Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian in their Round of 16 match. In the mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto went down 13-21 20-22 to China’s seventh seeds Cheng Xing and Zhang Chi in 44 minutes. The other Indian mixed doubles pair of Sathish Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath also lost.