India Open 2024: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty Advance; The error-prone Kidambi Srikanth falls early
World No. 2 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty recorded a 21-15, 19-21, 21-16 victory over Fang-Chih Lee and Fang-Jen Lee of Chinese Taipei.
New Delhi: Celebrated Indian shuttlers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the second round of men's doubles at the India Open Super 750 tournament, but an erratic Kidambi Srikanth bowed out after a straight defeat to Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu on Wednesday.
World No. 2 Satwik and Chirag, who finished second in the Malaysia Super 1000 in Kuala Lumpur last week, recorded a 21-15, 19-21, 21-16 victory over Fang-Chih Lee and Fang-Jen Lee from Chinese Taipei. Earlier, a series of brilliant shots were sandwiched between a series of unforced errors during the 47-minute opening round as Srikanth fell 22-24 13-21 to the world number one. 18 Lee.
Srikanth made a good start in the opening game and played some nice shots from the back half to keep his nose ahead. But Lee continued to breathe down his neck and slowly got back into the rhythm and, after a tight battle, moved up from 17-17 and took three game points.
Srikanth managed to get back to 20-20 before taking a one-point lead, but then fired a shot wide, while Lee eventually wrapped up the match with a sharp drop. Although he looked good in the first game, Srikanth found himself trailing 2-11 at half-time after the change of ends. He recovered to 6-12, but the damage had already been done as the gap was too big for the Indian to bridge.
“I know I have made unnecessary mistakes at times and I am working on it,” Srikanth said after the match. “I don't play it safe, that's my game. I'm trying to earn points. Hopefully things will go better in the coming tournaments. Parupalli (Kashyap) has a few things on his mind, so let's take a look. If I win a few tournaments, I'll qualify for the Olympics.
“I don't think about it because I don't just want to qualify, I also want to be a medal candidate.” Earlier, world number 20 Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa, who had won the Guwahati Masters Super 100 last December, took on world number 10 Thai pair Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda prajongjai 5-21 21-18 11- 21 in their opening women's doubles match.
Among other Indians, the men's pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Sai Pratheek, and the women's duo of Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam fell in consecutive matches to make an early exit from the tournament.