All England Badminton Championships: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty Crash Out in Second Round

India’s hopes for a seemingly sureshot gold have not surely disappeared as India’s World No. 1 men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty fell short to Indonesia’s Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana in two straight games of 16-21, 15-21 in the Round of 16, at the All England Open.

The dynamic duo, who had previously made it to the finals of all tournaments that they featured in this year, looked bemused as the Indonesian pair dismantled them both with their aggressive play.

This defeat marks the third time the Indians have fell victim to the Indonesians, with their last win against them coming in January of this year at Malaysia.

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.

Earlier Sindhu, a double Olympic medallist, seemed to be in good touch as she fought hard against the world No. 1 An Se Young of Korea but failed to curb her mistakes to slip to a 19-21, 11-21 loss.

It was the Indian’s seventh successive loss to the indomitable An Se Young, who had become the first Korean woman singles player to win the World Championships last year.

Now, India’s only hope for any silverware from England lies on the shoulders of Lakshya Sen, recorded a stunning three-game win of 24-22 11-21 21-14 over World no. 3 Anders Antonsen to progress to the quarterfinals.

(with inputs from agencies)