Singapore Badminton Open 2024: Top seeds Chirag-Satwik suffer shock exit in opening round

India’s Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy suffered a shock opening round exit from the Singapore Badminton Open 2024 BWF Super 750 tournament in Kallang on Tuesday.

Chirag and Satwik, world No. 1 in the current world badminton rankings and the top seeds, lost 22-20, 21-18 to the 34th-ranked Danis pair of Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard in 47 minutes.

This was the first time the two pairings had met on the BWF World Tour.

Chirag-Satwik, on the hunt for their third title of the year after clinching the French and Thailand Open, began slowly and fell 9-4 behind early on. The Indian badminton players, however, mounted a spirited fightback to turn the tables and took a 21-18 lead.

The Danish team stayed calm under pressure to save two game points and took the lead. The second game also saw the two teams go neck-to-neck until 16-all before Lundgaard and Vestergaard broke away right at the end to produce a shocking result.

The Danes will face off against the People’s Republic of China’s He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu, who won the Thailand Masters together earlier this year and made the German Open final, in the second round.

Chirag-Satwik’s upset summed up what was a disappointing opening day for Indian shuttlers at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

In women’s singles, Aakarshi Kashyap bowed out after losing to Thailand’s Pornpicha Choeikeewong 21-19, 22-20 in a closely-fought match. World No. 29 Priyanshu Rajawat also went down fighting against the 18th-ranked Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong China by a 23-21, 21-19 scoreline in men’s singles.

India’s Rutaparna and Swetaparna Panda stretched their women’s doubles clash against Chinese Taipei’s Chang Ching Hui and Yang Ching Tun to three games before eventually going down 21-12, 12-21, 21-13 in women’s doubles.

Ashith Surya-Amrutha Pramuthesh’s mixed doubles campaign wrapped up following a 21-8, 21-17 defeat at the hands of Hong Kong China’s Lee Chun Hei Reginald-Ng Tsz Yau.

Singapore Open 2022 champion PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy will start their campaign from Wednesday.