Commonwealth Games men’s doubles champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered an opening-round defeat in the China Open Super 1000 tournament, going down in three games to Indonesia’s Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Maulana Bagas in Changzhou, China on Wednesday.
The Indian pair, ranked two in the world, lost to the world number 13 duo 17-21, 21-11, 17-21 in one hour eight minutes.
The Indian mixed doubles pair of Sikki Reddy and Rohan Kapoor also crashed out of the tournament, going down to the Malaysian duo of Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei 15-21, 16-21 in the first round.
With the defeats, the Indian challenge came to an end as no player from the country could advance to the second round of the tournament.
The loss in the opening round just ahead of the Asian Games would be a huge disappointment for Satwik and Chirag after their success in the Swiss Open Super 300, Korea Open and the Indonesia Open Super 1000 earlier this year. This is the second time the Indonesians have beaten the Satwik-Chirag pair this year. They had defeated the Indian duo in the pre-quarterfinals of the Thailand Open in June.
On Tuesday, World Championship bronze medallist HS Prannoy too had made a shock opening-round exit after going down in three games to Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong (12-21, 21-13, 18-21).
Reigning Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen had also crashed out of the tournament in the first round after losing to recent Worlds bronze medallist, Anders Antonsen of Denmark in three games (21-23, 21-16, 9-21).
Having been handed the tough task of facing top seeds and three-time world champion pair Chen Qing Chen and Yi Fan Jia, Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly lasted 46 minutes, losing 18-21, 11-21
Priyanshu Rajawat was beaten by Indonesian qualifier Shesar Hiren Rhustavito 13-21, 24-26 while doubles pair M. R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila went down fighting 21-23, 19-21 to seventh seeds Kelichiro Matsui and Yoshinori Takeuchi of Japan.
PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth had withdrawn ahead of the tournament, with an eye on the upcoming Asian Games.
