Seoul [South Korea], July 20 : India's star men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty moved to quarter-finals of the the Korea Open 2023 badminton tournament on Thursday. HS Prannoy and Priyanshu Rajawat exited the tournament in the second round, as per Olympics.com.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the third seeds and world No. 3, defeated the 16th-ranked duo of He Jiting and Zhou Haodong of the Republic of China 21-17, 21-15 in 43 minutes.
Four other Indian entries playing in the pre-quarterfinals of the BWF Super 500 event lost their respective matches, ending India’s campaign in the men’s singles, and the women’s and mixed doubles events.
The Indian badminton pair will play fifth seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Earlier in the men’s singles, 31-year-old HS Prannoy, 10th in the badminton rankings and seeded fifth at the Korea Open, was stunned 21-15, 19-21, 21-18 by world No. 18 Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong in an hour and six minutes.
Priyanshu Rajawat, meanwhile, went down 21-14, 18-21, 21-17 to top seed and world No. 4 Kodai Naraoka of Japan. The 21-year-old Indian badminton player, ranked 32nd, put up a tough fight but lost the match in an hour and 22 minutes.
In the women’s doubles, the 19th-ranked duo of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly lost 21-11, 21-4 to second seeds and world No. 2 pairing of Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee of the Republic of Korea in 33 minutes.
In the mixed doubles, Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy lost 21-15, 21-12 to fourth seeds Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping of China in 35 minutes.
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, meanwhile, was ousted in the opening round after the Indian went down to Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po on Wednesday.
Results at the Korea Open count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The qualification window for badminton started on May 1 this year.
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