Birmingham (England): World No. 1 Indian pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out in the men's doubles pre-quarterfinals of the All England Badminton Championships after a straight-game defeat against Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia here. Satwik and Chirag on Thursday night lost 16-21 15-21 against the Indonesians, who were champions here in 2022.
The top-seeded Indian shuttlers, who had won the French Open last week, could not sustain the pressure on their rivals, the third seeds, and went down in a little over an hour. Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa also exited in the women's doubles round of 16, after a 21-11 11-21 11-21 defeat against Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu of China.
Later today, India's Lakshya Sen will face Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia, a 2021 champion here, in the men's singles quarterfinals. Earlier, Sen had recorded a stunning three-game win over world No. 3 Anders Antonsen to progress to the quarterfinals. Sen won 24-22 11-21 21-14.
However, it was curtains for double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu as she slipped to a 19-21 11-21 loss to her nemesis and world No. 1 An Se Young of South Korea.
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