In more than an hour, top Indian men’s doubles shuttlers Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated seventh-seeded Indonesians Sabar Gutama and Moh Reza Isfahani 19-21, 21-16, 21-19 to advance to the Singapore Open semifinals.
Satwik and Chirag have a 6-2 win-loss record against the second-seeded Malaysian duo of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin, whom they will play on Friday.
Satwik and Chirag, who have been battling fitness issues for the last two months, put up a fantastic show.
Even though PV Sindhu, a double Olympic winner, put up a strong battle, she succumbed to fifth-seeded sChinese starshuttler Chen Yu Fei in more than an hour, losing 9-21, 21-18, 16-21. Unfortunately, her voyage came to an early stop once again.
In the second game, Sindhu, who is now ranked 17th in the world, showed glimmers of her former form, taking a 19–12 lead before falling 21–18.
Sindhu found it difficult to match Fei’s savage smashes and court management in the final, as the Chinese outperformed Sindhu in both areas.
It was Sindhu’s eighth loss to Chen in 13 encounters, underscoring her continued lack of consistency this year.
Last week, Sindhu had just lost to Thuy Nguyen in the first round of the Malaysia Masters after a fierce battle.
Sindhu lost to Canada’s Wen Yu Zhang 21-14, 21-9 in the first round, but they were unable to generate any momentum on Thursday.
Even though Sindhu had her moments, Fei was able to dictate terms in the decisive because of her poor reactions and lack of composure during rallies.
Interestingly, Sindhu had won the 2022 Singapore Open.
In the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s singles tournament, Frenchman Christo Popov defeated HS Prannoy 16-21, 14-21, causing sadness for India.
The second-seeded duo of Tang Man and Tse Suet of Hong Kong, China, defeated Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde in straight games earlier, 10-21, 16-21.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela, the eighth-seeded women’s doubles team, will later face Zhang Shu Xian and Jia Yi Fan of China. On tour, the latter two have already defeated the Indian women.
