Swiss Open: Doubles pair of Rankireddy, Chirag sail into second round

Basel [Switzerland], March 3 (ANI): Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty started their campaign on a high as they outclassed Scottish pair Christopher Grimley and Matthew Grimley in the first round of the Swiss Open 2021 on Wednesday.
Rankiredddy and Chirag won the hard-fought first set 21-18 but went down in the second essay as the Scottish pair fired an array of shots to diffuse the Indian attack.
The Indian pair in the third set took a lead early and then maintained a gap throughout the set to clinch the match comfortably 21-18, 19-21, 21-16.
In the men’s singles, Indian shuttler HS Prannoy crashed out of the tournament after losing to Dutch badminton player Mark Caljouw 21-19, 9-21, 21-17.
Earlier, the Indian mixed doubles pair Rankiredddy and Ashwini Ponnappa had defeated the second-seeded Indonesian pair of Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja in the first round of the tournament on Tuesday.
Rankiredddy and Ponnappa had defeated the World no. 8 pair in straight games 21-18, 21-10 in the encounter that lasted for 38 minutes. Indian pair will now proceed to the second round of the tournament.
The first game saw a high competition between both sides but the Indian pair stood up strong in the closing of the set to claim the game with 21-18.
It was the one-way in the second game as Rankireddy and Ponnappa did not give any chance to the Indonesian pair to make comeback in the match.
In the other clash of the day, Indian mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy were ousted by third-seeded pair of Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith of England 21-18, 21-15 in 39 minutes. (ANI)