India's World No.1 pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a shocking first-round loss to Denmark's World No.34 pair of Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard in the Singapore Open on Tuesday, May 28.
The Indian pair came fresh off its title win at the Thailand Open Super 500 earlier this month when they had also become the No.1 duo in the world. However, they went down to the Danes in straight games, losing 20-22 and 18-21 in the 47-minute clash.
The Indian stars were reeling behind at 6-12 before staging a comeback in the opening round. They took the lead and had two game points at 20-18. However, the Danes fought back and won the next four points to close the game.
Mads and Daniel took a 6-3 lead in the second game before the battle intensified. The lead kept changing and the Indians had a one-point advantage at the second-game interval. But the Danes then had a 16-15 lead before the Indians took it again at 17-16 with a cross-court shot.
But Satwik and Chirag made some errors with Chirag hitting the net on his serve before Satwik hitting the net too. The Danes had three match points at 20-17 and clinched the game and the match on the second chance at 20-18.
There was more disappointment for the Indians at the Singapore Open. India's World No.41 women's star Akarshi Kashyap went down in the opening round to Thailand's Pornpicha Choeikeewong 7-21, 15-21. She hardly had any chance in the opening game but was more competitive in the second one. Priyanshu Rajawat lost his singles game to Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu in the first round 21-23, 19-21. Indian women's doubles pair of Rutuparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda lost their round of 32 contest 12-21 21-12 13-21 to Chinese Taipei's Chang Ching Hui and Yang Ching Tun.
