Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, India’s top men’s doubles combo, will compete in the quarterfinals of the ongoing China Masters badminton competition on Friday after making a spectacular return to the sport on Thursday. Sat-Chi played their first match since their heartbreaking loss in the Paris Olympics 2024. Satwiksairaj also overcame an injury to compete in the competition. According to Olympics.com, the duo defeated 15th-ranked Rasmus Kjaer and Filip Sogaard of Denmark 21-19 and 21-15.
The reigning Asian Games champions from India will face Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Christensen in the quarterfinals.PV Sindhu, a two-time Olympic winner, also continued her Badminton World Federation (BWF) title drought, losing to world number 13 Yeo Jia Min of Singapore in a hard-fought match by 21-16, 17-21, 23-21.
The match was up and down, with the score tied at 15-all in the first game before Yeo took the lead and prevailed. Sindhu battled back and won the following closely contested game. In the decider, the Indian held a 13-9 lead until her opponent rallied. Sindhu saved four match points, but Yeo finished the game in one hour and nine minutes.
Sindhu’s first loss to Yeo in six meetings comes as she continues her quest for a BWF crown, the last of which she won at the Singapore Open last year. She last advanced to the finals of a BWF event in the Malaysia Masters in May of this year.
Lakshya Sen, a Paris Olympics 2024 semifinalist, also defeated Denmark’s world number 30 Rasmus Gemke by a score of 21-16, 21-18. In the quarterfinals, he’ll face Anders Antonsen of Denmark. However, the day also featured India’s mixed doubles combo of B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy, women’s singles players Anupama Upadhyaya and Malvika Bansod, and women’s doubles team Teresa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.