Paris, Aug 1 The Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty crashed out of the Paris Olympics, losing in three hard-fought games to Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the men's doubles quarterfinal match in the badminton competition here on Thursday. The Indian pair, ranked fifth in the latest BWF Rankings, went down 21-13, 14-21, 16-21 to the third-ranked Malaysians, silver medallists at the Tokyo Olympics.
In the first game, Satwik-Chirag took the lead but could not maintain the momentum as the pair was defeated in three games by Chia-Yik, the former world champions. From a 10-10 tie, the Indian pair won the next five points and then extended it to 17-11. Satwik and Chirag had a game point at 20-12. The Malaysians saved one game point, but the Indians could not be denied and won the first game.
After taking the first game 21-13, Sat-Chi lost the second 14-21 as the Malaysian duo bounced back hard with a flurry of smashes and net shots. From 10-10, they opened up a lead and extended it to 17-12, Satwik and Chirag won the next two points, but Malaysians won four points in a row to win the game 21-14.
The Malaysian duo started the third game with attacking play and took the initial lead at 2-0. However, the Indian pair was swift in counter-attack, pinning the Malaysian duo to the backcourt. The third game which lasted 24 minutes saw the Malaysian duo prevail over the Indians by five points.
The Indian pair had won the last three encounters with the Malaysian combination after losing eight matches on the bounce before that.
On Thursday, the Malaysian turned out to be the better combine on the court and the Indian combo, which had qualified for the knockouts after winning both their matches in the three-team Pool C, went down fighting.
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