Chirag-Satwiksairaj ensure men’s doubles medal after 52 years

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, two of India’s top men’s doubles players, made history on Friday by winning a men’s doubles medal in the ongoing Badminton Asia Championships for the first time in 52 years.

The experienced Indonesian combo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan was upset by the Indian duo in straight games on Friday in the quarterfinals in Dubai, 21-11, 21-12. The final four matches will pit Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin of Chinese Taipei against the Indian team of Satwiksairaj and Chirag.

Earlier, ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu crashed out of the Badminton Asia Championships 2023 after losing to second seed An Se Young in a women’s singles quarterfinal match in Dubai on Friday.

Playing at the Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Indoor Hall, World No. 11 Sindhu suffered defeat against the South Korean shuttler and went down 21-18, 5-21, and 9-21. The two-time Olympic medalist, Sindhu, played well in the first game and won it despite trailing 13-16 at one point. In their previous five encounters, PV Sindhu has never defeated An Se Young in a game.

An Se Young dominated the second game. In the third, Sindhu engaged in longer rallies, but An Se Young proved tough to crack and ran away with the game convincingly. The second Indian hopeful, eighth-seeded HS Prannoy, also lost in the men’s singles quarterfinals after giving up his match against Japanese opponent Kanta Tsuneyama in the middle of the match. Prannoy was trailing 11-21, 9-13, when he retired due to an injury.