India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stormed into the second round of the USD 475,000 Indonesia Masters super 500 badminton with a clinical straight-game win against Chinese taipei's Chen Zhi Ray and Lin Yu Chieh on Tuesday. (More Badminton News)
🐻The Asian Games champions, who reached back-to-back semifinals at Malaysia Super 1000 and India Super 750 in the last two weeks, outwitted Chen and Lin, ranked 38th in the world, 21-16 21-15 in their opening match.
💟 World No. 19 combination of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa stamped their authority over Thai pair of Ornnicha Jongsathapornparn and Sukitta Suwachai 21-6 21-14 in the women's doubles opening round.
ﷺ Satwik and Chirag, the former world number ones, will face the winner of the match between Indonesia's Raymond Inra and Patra Harapan Rindorindo and Thailand's Kittinupong Kedren and Dechapol Puavaranukroh.
ꦅ Ashwini and Tanisha, who won the Guwahati Masters super 100 title, last month will take on Malaysia's Pei Kee Go and Mei Xing Teoh next.
ꦺ In men's singles, 2023 Odisha Masters runner-up Ayush Shetty brushed aside compatriot Kidambi Srikanth 21-7 21-15, while Tanya Hemanth eked out a hard-fought 16-21 21-17 21-15 win over Chinese Taipei's Tung Ciou-Tong in the men's and women's qualifying rounds.
🥃 Ayush, a 2023 World junior championships bronze winner, will face top seed China's Shi Yu Qi in the main draw, while Tanya will meet Thailand's former world champion Ratchanok Intanon.
💧 Satwik and Chirag didn't have the desired start as the Taiwanese pair moved to a 8-4 lead early on but the Indians drew parity with four straight points. Thereafter, the two pairs were locked at 14-14 before Satwik and Chirag took a slender 17-16 lead.
꧙ The Indians then reeled off the required four points to seal the opening game.
💃 Having had the measure of their opponents, Satwik and Chirag played with more clarity and it showed as they jumped to 12-5 after the change of sides. The Taiwanese were then left to do the catching-up job as the Indian pair prevailed comfortably.
