The Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Olympic bronze-medalists Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge 21-19, 12-21, 21-19 in the opening round of BWF World Championships in Nanjing, China on Tuesday.
The Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Olympic bronze-medalists Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge 21-19, 12-21, 21-19 in the opening round of BWF World Championship in Nanjing, China on Tuesday.
Earlier in the year, Satwiksairaj and Chirag had lost the Commonwealth Games gold medal match to the same opponents so a win today was a sweet revenge.
Although Satwiksairaj and Chirag are ranked better – No. 18 in men’s doubles according to BWF rankings, Marcus and Chris, who clinched bronze in Rio 2016, had thrashed the Indian duo in straight games in CWG 2018 men’s doubles final.
Satwiksairaj partnering Ashwini Ponnappa won their first-round match after sweeping aside 15th seeded Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich of Germany 10-21, 21-17, 21-18.
Meanwhile, India’stop Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth notched up comfortable victories over their respective opponents to make an impressive start at the World Championship on Tuesday.
Saina, who won a silver and bronze in the earlier editions of the championship, defeated Turkey's Aliye Demirbag 21-17 21-8 in the second round to set up a pre-quarterfinal clash with 2013 champion Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand. The Olympic medallist Indian had received a bye in the first round.
Fifth seed Srikanth dispatched Ireland's Nhat Nguyen 21-15 21-16 in his campaign opener to join compatriots HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma and B Sai Praneeth, who received a walkover after his opponent, Korea's Son Wan Ho, pulled out in the second round.
(With PTI inputs)
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