Korea Open 2023: Satwik-Chirag keep Indian challenge alive, enter men’s doubles quarterfinal

The third-seed Indian doubles pair defeated the unseeded Chinese pair by a scoreline of 21-17, 21-15 in the men’s doubles second round match that lasted for 43 minutes on Court 1 at the Yesou City Hall.

Rankireddy and Shetty, who won the Indonesia Open last month, will next face Japanese fifth seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in the quarterfinal match on Friday (July 21). The Indian pair hold a 3-1 advantage over their Japanese counterparts ahead of the last 8 clash.

While Satwik-Chirag pair reached the quarterfinal, two singles and two doubles pairs joined several first-round exiters, by bowing out in the second round of the respective matches.

Korea Open 2023: Indian Shuttlers Schedule, Results, Telecast & Live Streaming Info

Earlier on Thursday (July 20), Indian ace shuttler HS Prannoy made an early exit from the Korea Open Super 500 tournament as he lost his second round match to Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong.

World number 10 Prannoy, seeded fifth in the tournament, lost 15-21 21-19 18-21 to his opponent ranked eight places below him in a closely-contested match that lasted one hour and six minutes.

In another men’s singles match, Priyanshu Rajawat gave a spirited fight against world number four and top-seeded Kodai Naraoka of Japan before losing 14-21 21-18 17-21 in a second-round match that went on for one hour 22 minutes.

The Indian women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand was no match to the second seeded South Korean opponents Na Ha Baek and Hee So Lee as they lost 11-21 4-21 in just 33 minutes in the second round.

The same was in case of the Indian mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy as they lost to fourth seeded Chinese pair of Zhe Yan Feng and Ping Dong Huang 15-21 12-21 in 35 minutes.

Earlier on Wednesday (July 19), Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth had lost their respective women’s and men’s singles opening round matches joining many others including Malvika Bansod and Akarshi Kashyap to crash out early in the tournament.

(With PTI inputs)