India Open badminton 2024: Satwik-Chirag edge into second round; Kidambi Srikanth ousted

Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy edged into the men’s doubles second round at the India Open 2024 badminton tournament in New Delhi on Wednesday but former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth made an early exit from men’s singles.

World No. 2 Chirag-Satwik, who made the Malaysia Open final last week, beat Chinese Taipei’s Fang-Chih Lee and Fang-Jen Lee, placed 24th in the BWF badminton rankings, by a 21-15, 19-21, 21-16 scoreline at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall.

“We are really happy with the way we are playing and the way we have started,” Satwiksairaj Rankireddy said. “We have worked a lot on our defence over the past two years and it has brought a new facet in our armor because you can't always rely on your attack in these slow conditions. We are happy to get that first win here and hopefully, we go deep into the tournament.”

Meanwhile, former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth’s slump in form continued with the Indian badminton player making an opening round exit for a seventh tournament on the trot.

Srikanth, world No. 25, lost his opening encounter in men’s singles 22-24, 13-21 to Hong Kong China’s Lee Cheuk Yiu, ranked 18th.

In fact, barring Satwik and Chirag, none of the Indian players in action on Wednesday managed a win.

In the other men’s singles match involving Indians on the night, world No. 50 Sathish Kumar Karunakaran started well against Japan’s Takuma Obayashi, ranked 35th, but eventually lost 20-22, 16-21.

India’s challenge in women’s singles and doubles also wrapped up.

Aakarshi Kashyap, the only Indian in the women’s singles draw at the BWF Super 750 tournament, lost 21-10, 21-9 to the People’s Republic of China’s Chen Yu Fei. The Chinese shuttler, seeded second, is the reigning Olympic champion.

In the women's doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa went down 5-21, 21-18, 11-21 to the Thai pair of Rawinda Prajongjai and Jongkolphan Kititharakul. Ashwini Bhat K. and Shikha Gautam, meanwhile, were outclassed 12-21, 3-21 by the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallists Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong of the Republic of Korea.

Krishna Prasad Garaga and Sai Pratheek. K, meanwhile, bowed out of the men’s doubles after a straight games loss to the Japanese pair of Kenya Mitsuhashi and Hiroki Okamura.

India Open 2024, the second tournament of the 2024 badminton season, offers qualifying ranking points to shuttlers for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The qualification window for badminton started on May 1 last year and will end on April 28 this year.