World No. 1 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s wait for an All England Open crown continued as the top seeds were knocked out in the men’s doubles second round by former champions Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia. In a shock result on Thursday, the Indian pair were beaten in straight games – 16-21, 15-21 in just 44 minutes at the United Arena in Birmingham.
Satwik and Chirag exiting the prestigious Super 1000 tournament as early as the second round serves a big blow to India’s hopes of ending their long wait for an All England champion. Only Prakash Padukone in 1981 and Pullela Gopichand in 2001 are the Indian players to have won the tournament in England in the past.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were unusually error-prone, especially in the front of the court as several close points did not go their way. The Indian duo allowed Fikri and Maulana to take a 13-6 lead in the opening game. Despite their efforts to close the gap, the 2022 champions took the early advantage by winning the opening game. The World No. 9 pair from Indonesia did not waste the momentum gained as they stormed to a straight-game win.
It was Satwik and Chirag’s 3rd defeat to the Indonesian pair in 7 meetings. The Indian duo had beaten Fikri and Maulana in straight games in Malaysia in January.
The defeat ends Satwik and Chirag’s streak of reaching the final of all the tournaments that they featured in 2024. Satwik and Chirag headed to Birimingham with a lot of confidence after having won the French Open Super 750 title last week in Paris.
LAKSHYA KEEPS INDIAN CAMPAIGN ALIVE
Meanwhile, India had another disappointing result on Thursday as Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto were knocked out in the second round of the women’s doubles competition. The World No. 23 pairing lost to No. 6 pair of Zhang Xian and Zheng Yu 11-21, 21-11, 11-21.
Lakshya Sen is the lone Indian in the fray at the All England Open. The 2022 finalist defeated 7th seed Anders Antonsen in a three-game battle to reach the men’s singles quarter-final. He will face 2021 champion Lee Zii Jia on Friday.
Earlier on Thursday, two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu was shown the door in the women’s singles second round after she lost to World No. 1 An Se Young. It was the star shutter’s 7th straight defeat to the South Korean star in their meetings.
