Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy duo cruises to the second round
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, India's top doubles pair have advanced to the second round of the Badminton Asia Championships with a straight-game win of 21-13 21-9 against their Thai competitors.
The world number 7 and third-seeded Indian duo played against the Thai pair of Apiluk Gaterahong and Natchanon Tulamok and won the match in just 27 minutes.
Satwik and Chirag have their next match with Japan's Akiro Koga and Taichi Saito in the second round.
Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto also advanced to the second round of the mixed doubles event. The Indian duo got the better of Hong Kong's Law Cheuk Him and Yeung Nga Ting 21-15 21-17 in half an hour.
However, the duo Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala, couldn't cruise to the further rounds.
Prasad and Pranjala fought hard but eventually conceded the first-round tie to Kang Minhyuk and Kim Wonho of South Korea 10-21 21-19 16-21.
Later in the day, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will take on fourth seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto of Indonesia in the men's doubles, while the mixed doubles Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan will be pitted against Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianiti of Indonesia.
(Inputs from PTI)
