India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the second round of the men’s doubles competition at the All England Championships, registering a straight-game victory over Denmark’s Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard.

Satwik, making his return after the loss of his father last month, and Chirag delivered an impressive performance, winning 21-17, 21-15 in 40 minutes late Wednesday.

The Asian Games champions, seeded 7th, will take on China’s Hao Nan Xie and Wei Han Zeng in the round of 16 on Thursday.

In other matches involving Indian players, Lakshya Sen will face Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie, while Malvika Bansod takes on Japan’s third seed Akane Yamaguchi, a two-time World Champion.

Malvika had earlier stunned Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min in her debut match at the prestigious tournament.

World No. 9 Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who reached back-to-back semifinals at this event, will meet the eighth-seeded Korean pair of Hye Jeong Kim and Hee Yong Kong.

Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde will square off against the fifth-seeded Chinese duo of Yan Zhe Feng and Ya Xin Wei.

Axelsen Suffers Shock Defeat

Former badminton world number one Viktor Axelsen suffered a shock first-round defeat to Taiwan’s Lin Chun-yi at the All England Open on Wednesday.

Lin came out on top after a back-and-forth first game before Axelsen dominated the second.

The Dane was not able to keep that form in the decider, however, as Lin reeled off six points in a row on the way to a 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 victory.

“If I don’t play my best, everyone can win against me," said Axelsen, the current world number four.

“Today’s opponent played a fantastic game. It was disappointing, but that is how it is.

“I just tried to survive in the match. There is always a lot of pressure when I am here at the All England and every single day, and I got tense when my body was feeling bad and it affected my entire game."

Yushi Tanaka got the better of eighth seed Kodai Naraoka in an all-Japanese men’s match.

In the women’s singles, top-seeded South Korean and 2023 winner An Se-young made serene progress with a 21-16, 21-14 win over Gao Fangjie of China.

Former champion Chen Yufei also advanced and her Chinese compatriot and second seed Wang Zhiyi knocked out two-time winner Nozomi Okuhara.

(With inputs from Agencies)