Satwik-Chirag pair sails to second round at Asia Championships

Manila (Philippines): India’s top doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty cruised to the second round of the Badminton Asia Championships with a straight game win here on Tuesday.

The world number 7 and third seeded Indian duo hardly broke a sweat to register a 21-13,21-9 victory against the Thai pair of Apiluk Gaterahong and Natchanon Tulamok in 27 minutes. Satwik and Chirag will next lock horns 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 and hour.

However, it was



the end of the road for the men”s doubles duo of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala. 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.

They will take on the winners of the tie between South Korea”s Kim Wonho and Jeong Na Eun and the seventh seeded pairing of Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing of Malaysia. 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.