Satwik-Chirag pair advances to second round at Australian Open

Star Indian shuttlers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty entered the men's doubles second round with a tough straight-game win over Chinese Taipei's Chang Ko-Chi and Po Li-Wei at the Australian Open Super 500 tournament here on Tuesday.

The world No. 3 Indian pair, who reached back-to-back finals at the Hong Kong Super 500 and China Masters Super 750, prevailed 25-23, 21-16 in a fighting 48-minute opening-round clash against Ko-Chi and Po Li-Wei.

In women's doubles, however, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand suffered a 10-21, 14-21 defeat to Indonesia's F Kusuma and M Puspitasari in their opening match.

Top seeds Satwik and Chirag fell 2-6 behind early in the opening game, with the Taiwanese pair maintaining a slender lead until 16-14. The Indians turned the tables to go up 19-17, but the game went down to the wire thereafter.

A sharp net shot after a fierce rally gave the Indians a game point, which the Taiwanese saved with a brutal smash. Chirag then missed a chance to give Ko-Chi and Li-Wei another game point, only for them to find the net.

Satwik's error handed the Taiwanese their third game point, which the Indians promptly saved.

The Indians earned another game point when their opponents hit the net and finally converted as the Taiwanese faltered again at the net.

Satwik and Chirag opened up a 7-4 lead after the change of sides, but two net errors and a strong smash from the Taiwanese allowed them to catch up. The pairs split the next six points before an attempted smash went long, giving the Indians a one-point lead at the interval.

Satwik and Chirag maintained their momentum after the restart, stretching the advantage to 18-15, and closed out the match comfortably with two superb smashes.

India's singles players such as Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth, Ayush Shetty and others will start their campaign on Wednesday.